Effects of Nitrogen Impurity Concentration on Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Formation in 4H-SiC

Spin defects of which states can be manipulated in Silicon Carbide (SiC) have drawn considerable attention because of their applications to quantum technologies. The single negatively-charged pairs of VSi and nitrogen atom (N) on an adjacent C site (NCVSi- center) in SiC is suitable for them. This paper reports the formation of NCVSi- centers on 4H-SiC epilayers with different nitrogen concentrations using light/heavy ion irradiation and subsequent thermal annealing. The formation of NCVSi- centers is characterized by the near infrared photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. It is shown that the PL intensity from NCVSi- centers depends on the N concentration and the ion irradiation conditions. The PL intensity increases monotonically with increasing the N concentration when the N concentration is above 2.6×1016 cm-3, whereas no linear correlation between them does not appear below that N concentration. Although the PL intensity increases with increasing defects induced by ion irradiation, the PL quenching due to neighboring residual defects appear at above the areal vacancy concentration of 1017 vac/cm2 and the broad Raman scattering spectra originated from vibration modes of amorphized regions hinder the PL from NCVSi- centers at above 1018 vac/cm2. The formation mechanism and the charge state stability of NCVSi- centers are discussed based on the obtained results.