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Basal plane dislocations (BPDs) are one of the most harmful dislocations in 4H silicon carbide (4H-SiC). Understanding the nucleation of BPDs is the basis of reducing the density of BPDs in 4H-SiC. In this work, we investigate the nucleation mechanism of BPDs, as well as the effect of doping on the nucleation of BPDs in 4H-SiC using nanoindentation. It is found that the shear stress plays a dominant role in the nucleation of BPDs in undoped 4H-SiC. This indicates that the shear component of the thermal stress during the growth of 4H-SiC single crystals and that of the mechanical stress during the processing of 4H-SiC wafers both give rise to the nucleation of BPDs. Nitrogen (N) doping is found to facilitate the nucleation of BPDs and decrease the shear stress required for the nucleation of BPDs. In contrast, vanadium (V) doping hinders the nucleation of BPDs, which promotes the polymorph transition from 4H-SiC to 3C-SiC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]