Influence of Electrochemical Etching on Electroluminescence from n-Type 4H- and 6H-SiC

The influence of electrochemical etching on the electroluminescence properties of n-type 6H- and 4H-SiC was investigated. Luminescence was generated by forward-biasing the semiconductor in an electrolyte solution containing a hole-injecting species. The emission properties of unetched, uniformly etched, and porous-etched substrates are compared. It is shown that the spectral distribution of the luminescence and the emission intensity strongly depends on photoanodic treatment.