Determination of Impact Ionization Coefficients Measured from 4H Silicon Carbide Avalanche Photodiodes

Hole initiated avalanche multiplication characteristics of 4H-SiC avalanche photodiodes have been studied. The diodes had n+-n-p SiC epitaxial layers grown on a p-type substrate. These 1 mm2 devices had very low dark currents and exhibited sharp breakdown at voltages of approximately 500V. The diodes multiplication characteristics appeared to be identical when the wavelength of the illuminating light from the top varied from 288 to 325nm, implying that almost pure hole initiated multiplication was occurring. The multiplication factor data were modelled using a local multiplication model with impact ionization coefficients of 4H-SiC reported by various authors. The impact ionization coefficients extracted from submicron devices by Ng et al. were found to give accurate predictions for multiplication factors within the uncertainties of the doping levels. This result suggests that their ionization coefficients can be applied to thicker bulk 4H-SiC structures.