Examination of Photoluminescence Temperature Dependencies in N-B Co-doped 6H-SiC

Two overlapping photoluminescent (PL) bands with a peaks (half-width) at 1.95 eV (0.45 eV) and 2.15 eV (0.25 eV), correspondingly at 300 K, are observed in heavily B-N co-doped 6H-SiC epilayers under high-level excitation condition. The low energy band dominates at low temperatures and decreases towards 300 K which is assigned to DAP emission from the nitrogen trap to the deep boron (dB) with phonon-assistance. The 2.15 eV band slightly increases with temperature and becomes comparable with the former one at 300 K. We present a modelling comprising electron de-trapping from the N-trap, i.e. calculating trapping and de-trapping probabilities. The T-dependence of the 2.15 eV band can be explained by free electron emission from the conduction band into the dB center provided by similar phonon-assistance.