Study of leakage current degradation based on stacking faults expansion in irradiated SiC junction barrier Schottky diodes

A comprehensive investigation was conducted to explore the degradation mechanism of leakage current in SiC junction barrier Schottky(JBS)diodes under heavy ion irradiation.We propose and verify that the generation of stacking faults(SFs)induced by the recombination of massive electron-hole pairs during irradiation is the cause of reverse leakage current degradation based on experiments results.The irradiation experiment was carried out based on Ta ions with high linear energy transfer(LET)of 90.5 MeV/(mg/cm^(2)).It is observed that the leakage current of the diode undergoes the permanent increase during irradiation when biased at 20%of the rated reverse voltage.Micro-PL spectroscopy and PL micro-imaging were utilized to detect the presence of SFs in the irradiated SiC JBS diodes.We combined the degraded performance of irradiated samples with SFs introduced by heavy ion irradiation.Finally,three-dimensional(3D)TCAD simulation was employed to evaluate the excessive electron-hole pairs(EHPs)concentration excited by heavy ion irradiation.It was observed that the excessive hole concentration under irradiation exceeded significantly the threshold hole concentration necessary for the expansion of SFs in the substrate.The proposed mechanism suggests that the process and material characteristics of the silicon carbide should be considered in order to reinforcing against the single event effect of SiC power devices.

Lake Level Changes Recorded by Tree Rings of Lakeshore Shrubs： A Case Study at the Lake West-Juyan, Inner Mongolia, China

Variation in water resources is a main factor influencing ecohydrological processes and sustainable development in arid regions. Lake level changes are a useful indicator of the variability in water resources. However, observational records of changes in lake levels are usually too short to give an understanding of the long-term variability. In the present study, we investigated the tree rings of shrubs growing on the lakeshore of Lake West-Juyan, the terminus of the Heihe River in western China, and found that Lake West-Juyan had undergone degradation three times over the past 200 years. The lake level decreased from 904.3 to 896.8 m above sea level （a.s.1.） during the period 1800-1900, to 892.0 m a.s.1, from around 1900 to the late 1950s, and the lake dried out in 1963. The trend for changes in lake levels, which was represented by the composite chronology of three beach bars, showed that the phases of increasing lake levels over the past 150 years were during the periods 1852-1871, 1932-1952, 1973-1982, and 1995-1999. Comparison with the history of regional economic development showed that human activity has played an important role in regulating the water resources of the lower reaches of the Heihe watershed over the past 200 years.