Effect of heavy proton and neutron irradiations on epitaxial 4H-SiC Schottky diodes

In this work we report electrical characterizations on heavily irradiated epitaxial 4H-SiC Schottky diodes. Even after an irradiation at a fluence of 1.4×1016p/cm2 and 7×1015n/cm2, we found the diodes still able to detect α and β particles with a charge collection efficiency (CCE) ranging from 25 to 30% after proton irradiation and about 18% after neutron irradiation, at the highest reverse bias applied. This corresponds to a charge collection distance (CCD) of 7μm after the proton irradiation and 5μm after the neutron irradiation. As the irradiation level approaches the range ∼1015/cm2, the material behaves as intrinsic due to a very high compensation effect.