Numerical investigation of laser doping parameters for semi-insulating 4H-SiC substrate

• Published in: Journal of laser applications 2024-05, Vol.36 (2)
• Main Authors: Sugrim, Chandraika (John), Kulkarni, Gunjan, Bougdid, Yahya, Heylman, Kevin, Kumar, Ranganathan, Kar, Aravinda, Sundaram, Kalpathy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1042-346X; 1938-1387
• DOI: 10.2351/7.0001158

Semi-insulating (SI) 4H-polytype of silicon carbide (SiC) is a highly desirable wide bandgap semiconductor material for various applications in challenging environments owing to its exceptional characteristics such as high melting point, remarkable thermal conductivity, strong breakdown field, and excellent resistance to oxidation. This study investigates the critical laser processing parameters to operate a pulsed UV 355 nm laser to dope high-purity (HP) SI 4H-SiC substrates with boron. The doping process parameters are examined and simulated for this UV laser doping system using a liquid precursor of boron. Boron atoms create a dopant energy level of 0.3 eV in the doped HP 4H-SiC substrates. Diffusion of boron atoms into 4H-SiC substrates modifies the hole density at 0.3 eV energy level, and causing a variation in the dynamic refraction index, and absorption index. Consequently, the optical properties of boron doped samples, namely, transmittance, reflectance, and absorbance, can be modified. The current simulation reported in this study explains the motivation of UV optical doping strategy to dope SiC substrates. A beam homogenizer was used to control the laser spot used to generate doping process. The advantage of the beam homogenizer is demonstrated by producing flat-top beams with uniform intensity over a certain area defined by the focusing lens choice. A simple theoretical model is used to select the laser processing parameters for doping SiC substrates. These modeled parameters are used to determine the efficient laser processing parameters for our doping experiments.