Effects of microwave annealing on crystalline quality of ion-implanted SiC epitaxial layers

High resolution X-ray rocking curve measurements were performed on Al+ ion-implanted 4H-Silicon Carbide (SiC) epitaxial layers, before and after 30 s ultra-fast microwave annealing in the temperature range of 1750–1900 °C, to examine the crystalline quality of the material. Based on the full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of the rocking curves, we observed an improvement in the crystalline quality of the microwave annealed samples compared to the conventional furnace annealed sample. The sample annealed at 1900 °C showed the best rocking curve FWHM of 9 ± 2 arcsecs, which not only shows a recovery of the defects introduced during the Al+ ion-implantation process, but also an improvement in crystalline quality over the as-grown virgin 4H-SiC sample that had a rocking curve FWHM of 18.7 ± 2 arcsecs. In this work, we have also correlated the variation of the rocking curve FWHMs with increasing penetration into the epilayer with the depth dependent microwave absorption in the SiC epilayer.