The critical excitation intensity for expansion of single Shockley stacking fault in 4H-silicon carbide: Experimental study

Mechanical stressing experiments devised to evaluate the formation energy of a single Shockley stacking fault (1SSF) γ1SSF have been conducted with the use of photoluminescence imaging of partial dislocations bounding 1SSFs in various 4H-SiC epilayers. Elaborate care was taken to avoid the blocking effect of point obstacles on the glide motion of partial dislocations that enables expansion and contraction of the 1SSFs. Analysis of the experimental results appears to show apparently different values of γ1SSF between n-type and p-type samples. Conversely, the critical ultraviolet light intensity that demarcates 1SSF expansion and contraction showed a similar temperature dependence for n-type and p-type samples.