Characterisation of SiC by IBIC and other IBA techniques

Several new technological applications of silicon carbide attracted significant attention in recent years. As a wide gap semiconductor it has also capability to be used as a room temperature radiation detector. For most applications, material properties like homogeneity of charge transport, presence of defects, resistance to radiation damage, influence of light impurities (hydrogen), are of prime importance. Two different kinds of samples, crystalline (4H-SiC) and thin amorphous (a-Si1-xCx:H) films, were studied by ion beam techniques. In the case of SiC single crystal radiation detectors, Li and proton beams with a wide range of energies were used to probe the charge collection efficiency at different device depths using the IBIC technique. Thin amorphous and microcrystalline Si1-xCx:H films with a different stoichiometry and different degree of structural ordering were examined using RBS and ERDA.