We are continuing our work on understanding silicon carbide (SiC) and in particular its interface to its native dielectric SiO₂. SiC is set to enable a new era in power electronics impacting a wide range of energy technologies, from electric vehicles to renewable energy. Following on from our previous work on the topic, where we used soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (check out the paper in Journal of Materials Chemistry C – it’s open access), we have now moved to hard X-ray excitation sources (HAXPES) probing non-destructively SiC and SiO₂ and their interface in device stacks treated in varying nitrogen-containing atmospheres.

We have worked together with colleagues from Infineon Technologies Austria and KAI to explore this buried interface using both laboratory and synchrotron HAXPES measurements to explore the local chemical states at and around the SiC/SiO₂ interface. The synchrotron measurements were performed on beamline I09 at Diamond Light Source and the laboratory HAXPES experiments were done on one of the first prototypes of ScientaOmicron’s HAXPES Lab system.

Go check out the paper in JPhys Energy and let us know your thoughts. We’d love to hear about any other material systems that we could test this approach on. The work was published as part of the JPhys Energy Emerging Leaders 2020 collection. Do check out the collection as it contains a number of great papers from exciting young leaders in the field.