Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 476 (2002) 717–721

Investigation on the charge collection properties of a 4H-SiC

Schottky diode detector
G. Verzellesia,*, P. Vannia, F. Navab, C. Canalia
a
INFM and Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ingegneria, Universita" di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via Vignolese 905, 41100 Modena, Italy
b
INFN and Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita" di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via Campi 213/a, 41100 Modena, Italy

Abstract

We present experimental and theoretical data on the charge collection properties of a 4H-SiC epitaxial Schottky
diode exposed to 5.48- and 2.00-MeV alpha particles. Hundred percent Charge Collection Efficiency (CCE) is, in
particular, demonstrated for the 2.00-MeV alpha particles at reverse voltages higher than 40 V: By comparing measured
CCE values with the outcomes of drift-diffusion simulations, a value of 500 ns is inferred for the hole lifetime within the
lowly doped, active layer of virgin samples. The contributions of diffusion and funneling-assisted drift to CCE at low
reverse voltages are pointed out. r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PACS: 29.40.W

Keywords: Semiconductor detectors; Silicon carbide; Device simulation

1. Introduction bulk radiation damage effects. In addition, the

Silicon carbide (SiC) is recently earning interest
as a material for ionising radiation detection
owing to its intrinsic properties, which make it
potentially superior to other semiconducting ma-
terials, such as silicon and gallium arsenide, in
terms of high operating temperature capability
and radiation damage resistance [1]. Such proper-
ties are, in particular, related to the wide band gap,
resulting in low leakage current even at high
operating temperatures, and to a high displace-
ment energy, rendering SiC detectors less prone to
*Corresponding author. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ingeg-
neria, Universit!a di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via Vignolese
905, I-41100 Modena, Italy.
E-mail address: verzellesi@dsi.unimo.it (G. Verzellesi).
0168-9002/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 8 - 9 0 0 2 ( 0 1 ) 0 1 6 5 8 - 8
high critical electric field makes SiC detectors able
to sustain higher reverse voltages and less influ-
enced by surface radiation damage effects.
In order to fully exploit such potentialities,
however, technological improvements as well as
fundamental research on the operation and detec-
tion properties of the different detector structures
are still required. This work is aimed at investigat-
ing the charge-collection properties of a 4H-SiC
Schottky-diode detector under alpha radiation.
The paper is organised as follows. In the next
section, the fabrication process of the Schottky
diode is briefly described and the most significant
results from its electrical characterisation are
presented. In Section 3, results are shown from
the nuclear characterisation of the adopted struc-
ture under alpha particles at two different energies.
718 G. Verzellesi et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 476 (2002) 717–721

In Section 4, an analysis of the charge collection
properties of the Schottky detector is presented,
based on drift-diffusion numerical simulations.
2. Device fabrication and electrical characterisation
good uniformity of doping concentration within
the active layer. Moreover, from its slope a doping
concentration of 2:25
1015 cm3 is inferred, in
good agreement with the nominal value provided
by the supplier.

Schottky diodes used in this work were fabri-

3. Nuclear characterisation
cated by Alenia Marconi Systems on 4H-SiC
epitaxial wafers purchased from CREE Research
The Charge Collection Efficiency (CCE) of the
[2]. The active layer is 30-mm thick and doped with
Schottky diode was measured at room tempera-
nitrogen at the nominal concentration of 2:2

ture as a function of the applied reverse voltage
1015 cm3 : Such an n-type layer was grown on a 1-
(Vrev ) for alpha particles of two different energies,
mm thick buffer, doped with nitrogen at the
namely 5.48 and 2:00 MeV; corresponding to peak
concentration of about 1
1018 cm3 : The latter
generation depths of 18 and 4:7 mm; respectively.
was, in turn, epitaxially grown on a 320-mm thick,
n-type substrate, featuring a dopant (nitrogen)
concentration of 6:8
1018 cm3 : The Schottky
contact was formed on the silicon surface by e-
beam deposition of a 100-nm thick, 2-mm
diameter, gold film. The ohmic contact was made
by e-beam deposition of Ti/Pt/Au on the rear,
carbon surface of the wafer. No heating treatment
was performed after metallisation. A schematic
cross-section of the resulting Schottky diode
structure is shown in Fig. 1.
The room-temperature I–V forward character-
istic of the Schottky diode is reported in Fig. 2,
from which the value Is ¼ 2:2
1022 A is extra-
polated for the diode reverse saturation current.
From the latter, a barrier height of 1:62 eV can be Fig. 2. Forward I–V characteristic of the 4H-SiC Schottky
derived in very good agreement with literature diode.
data. Fig. 3 shows the reciprocal of the squared
capacitance ð1=C2 Þ as a function of reverse bias.
The linearity of such a curve is an indication of the

Fig. 3. Reciprocal of the squared capacitance vs. reverse bias

Fig. 1. Schematic cross-section of the 4H-SiC Schottky diode. curve.
 G. Verzellesi et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 476 (2002) 717–721
The 5.48-MeV alpha particles were obtained
from an 241 Am source in vacuum, whereas the
2.00-MeV ones were obtained by decelerating the
241
Am alpha radiation in air. The CCE has been
measured by a standard procedure [3], which
normalises the pulse height with respect to the
response obtained in the same experimental con-
ditions of a Si surface barrier detector, with the
energy needed to produce one electron–hole pair in
SiC being 8:40 eV:
Figs. 4 and 5 show the CCE vs. Vrev curve for
the 5.48- and 2.00-MeV alpha particles, respec-
tively. The corresponding Bragg ionisation curves,
as obtained from TRIM simulations, are reported
in the insets. In both cases, increasing the reverse
bias widens the diode depletion region and there-
fore increases the CCE, as more energy is
deposited in the high-electric-field region where
generated charge is collected efficiently. A CCE of
86% is, in particular, achieved for the 5.48-MeV
alpha particles at Vrev ¼ 170 V; corresponding to a
depletion region width of about 9 mm: In the case
of 2.00-MeV alpha particles, the CCE reaches
100% at Vrev > 40 V particles, as the depleted
region entirely contains the particle generation
track. It must be stressed that this fact represents
an extremely encouraging indication about the
excellent, ‘‘silicon-like’’ properties of the 4H-SiC
as starting material for radiation detectors.
Fig. 4. Experimental Charge Collection Efficiency (CCE) as a
function of reverse bias for the 5.48-MeV alpha particles. The
corresponding Bragg ionisation curve is shown in the inset.
719
Fig. 5. Experimental CCE as a function of reverse bias for the
2.00-MeV alpha particles. The corresponding Bragg ionisation
curve is shown in the inset.
4. Charge collection analysis
To gain deeper insight into the charge-collection
properties of the structure under study, numerical
device simulations were performed using the drift-
diffusion semiconductor-device analysis program
DESSIS [4]. The code allows the dynamic response
of a device to an impinging alpha-particle to be
analysed. CCE values can easily be calculated
from the simulation output, by integrating the
current pulse obtained at the Schottky contact and
normalising the result to the total charge deposited
by the particle. Owing to the cylindrical symmetry
of the Schottky diode and assuming the alpha
particle to hit the centre of the device, the
computationally efficient, two-dimensional (in
cylindrical coordinates) simulations could be
adopted, yet allowing the three-dimensional as-
pects of the problem to be accounted for correctly.
Material- and transport-related parameters were
customised to 4H-SiC using values taken from the
literature [5]. Thermal generation–recombination
effects were accounted for by activating the
Schockley–Read–Hall model, whereas Auger re-
combination was neglected. Charge generation
induced by the 5.48- and 2.00-MeV alpha particles
was described by incorporating the corresponding
Linear Energy Transfer (LET) function. The latter
was preliminarily calculated with TRIM (see the
insets of Figs. 4 and 5).
720 G. Verzellesi et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 476 (2002) 717–721
Results obtained for the 5.48-MeV alpha
particles are summarised in Fig. 6, where the
experimental CCE data (already shown in Fig. 4)
are compared with the following theoretical CCE
vs. Vrev curves: (i) CCE values derived from drift-
diffusion simulations using the value of 500 ns for
the hole lifetime, tp ; (ii) CCE values calculated
analytically by assuming complete collection of
charge generated within the depletion region while
neglecting the contribution of charge generated
outside it; (iii) CCE values obtained from drift-
diffusion simulations assuming tp ¼ 1 ns: Different
aspects in Fig. 6 are worthy of being commented
upon. First of all, the value of 500 ns for tp ;
yielding a good agreement between experimental
and simulated CCE values, corresponds to a
diffusion length of about 13 mm; which compares
well with recently reported data [6]. Second, CCE
is clearly underestimated by neglecting the con-
tribution of diffusion, i.e. neglecting holes which
are generated outside the depletion region but
which diffuse towards it, escaping recombination.
Third, diffusion contribution to CCE is mostly
suppressed at tp ¼ 1 ns:
Results obtained for the 2.00-MeV alpha
particles are reported in Fig. 7. Again, the experi-
mental CCE values are compared with the out-
comes of drift-diffusion simulations at two tp
values and with analytical calculations accounting
for charge generated within the depletion region
Fig. 6. Experimental and theoretical CCE values for the
5.48-MeV alpha particles.
Fig. 7. Experimental and theoretical CCE values for the
2.00-MeV alpha particles.
only. Also in this case, measured CCE values
largely exceed those predicted by neglecting the
contribution of diffusion (until, for Vrev > 40 V;
the depletion region becomes wider than the
particle penetration depth and CCE becomes
unity). A good agreement between experimental
and simulated CCE is achieved, however, with a
significantly lower tp value. Such carrier lifetime
degradation is believed to be related to the
creation of defects during alpha-particle exposure.
As a matter of fact, measurements in Fig. 6 refer to
a virgin sample, while nuclear characterisation
with 2.00-MeV alpha particles was conducted only
on previously irradiated samples. A more systema-
tic analysis aimed at clarifying such an effect is
currently being carried out.
A final aspect which deserves consideration is
that a non-negligible difference exists, at low
reverse voltages, between the CCE curve derived
from drift-diffusion simulations using tp ¼ 1 ns
and that obtained from the analytical calculations
neglecting diffusion. Such a discrepancy is actually
present also in Fig. 6 for the 5.48-MeV alpha
particles, where it is, however, less evident (at least
in terms of absolute difference, while the relative
difference is, at Vrev ¼ 0 V; about 100% in both
cases). This can trivially be related to the residual
diffusion contribution due to the finite carrier
lifetime (1 ns) adopted for drift-diffusion simula-
tions. To ascertain this, however, tp cannot be
reduced further, as this would result in highly
effective recombination in the depletion region and
 G. Verzellesi et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 476 (2002) 717–721
Fig. 8. Electric-field distribution along the particle track at and
after 2.00-MeV alpha particle hit at 5-V reverse bias.
consequent reduction of the drift component of
the CCE, as well. Inspection of the internal charge
and electric-field distributions suggests that an-
other mechanism, besides diffusion, can possibly
contribute to the enhanced CCE at low reverse
bias. This is illustrated by Fig. 8, where the
simulated electric-field distribution along the
particle track is reported at different times during
the simulation analysis. The initial time (t ¼ 0)
corresponds to steady-state conditions prior to the
particle hit. At t ¼ 0:1 ns the alpha particle crosses
the device, instantaneously liberating a large
amount of free carriers along its track. As can be
seen from Fig. 8, the concentration of generated
carriers is high enough, at t ¼ 0:1 ns; to modulate
the electric-field profile, resulting in a dynamically
enlarged high-field-region width and enhanced
CCE with respect to static conditions. This
phenomenon has already been observed in silicon
devices subject to ion strikes [7,8] and referred to
as ‘‘funneling effect’’. At t > 1 ns; the electric-field
distribution rapidly relaxes towards the steady-
state profile, as generated carriers start getting
collected at the device contacts.
5. Conclusions
The nuclear response of a 4H-SiC epitaxial
Schottky diode was evaluated with 5.48- and
2.00-MeV alpha particles. Complete collection
721
(CCE ¼ 1) of generated charge was demonstrated
for the 2.00-MeV alpha particles at reverse
voltages higher than 40 V; corresponding to a
depletion width greater than the particle penetra-
tion depth.
By fitting the measured CCE with drift-diffusion
simulations, a value of 500 ns was obtained for the
hole lifetime, corresponding to a diffusion length
of about 13 mm: Such a relatively high value for tp
was shown to degrade to about 50 ns in irradiated
samples.
Models which neglect the contribution of
diffusion of carriers generated outside the deple-
tion region were shown to largely underestimate
the experimental CCE data at reverse voltages
lower than those required to completely deplete
the particle penetration depth.
The contribution of funneling to CCE enhance-
ment at low reverse voltages was pointed out by
analysing the dynamic evolution of the electric-
field distribution inside the device at and after the
particle hit.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Dr. C. Lanzieri,
Alenia Marconi Systems, for providing the 4H-SiC
samples.
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