Carrier lifetime measurement of silicon carbide for photoconductive switch applications using an IR probe laser

Author

Chris White;Daniel Mauch;David Thomas;James Dickens

Author_Institution

Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

6/1/2014 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

527

Lastpage

529

Abstract

A system for measuring the recombination lifetime of high purity, semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC through transient free carrier absorption (FCA) for optimization of SiC photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS) is presented. The system measures the transient absorption of a continuous, low-power (<;5mW) 1550 nm infrared probe laser. Free carriers were generated with both above and below bandgap illumination from the harmonics of a Nd: YAG laser (532 nm, 355 nm, and 266 nm-10ns FWHM), and the carrier lifetime was numerically calculated from the absorption transient. High spatial resolution (~10 um) was attained through the use of a high-precision, three-axis stage. The carrier lifetime measurements of various regions of several SiC PCSSs over varying levels of photo-excitation are presented.

Keywords

"Silicon carbide","Laser beams","Semiconductor device measurement","Probes","Microwave theory and techniques","Charge carrier lifetime","Microwave measurement"

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Modulator and High Voltage Conference (IPMHVC), 2014 IEEE International

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-7323-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IPMHVC.2014.7287328

Filename

7287328