Epitaxial silicon carbide for X-ray detection

We present the first experimental results of X-ray detection and spectroscopy by means of Schottky junctions on epitaxial silicon carbide (SiC). The devices have a junction area of 3 mm/sup 2/ on an n-type 4H-SiC layer 30 /spl mu/m thick with a dopant concentration of 1.8/spl times/10 cm at 300 K, the reverse current density of the best device varies between 2 pA/cm/sup 2/ and 18 pA/cm/sup 2/ as the mean electric field is increased from 40 kV/cm up to 170 kV/cm. The devices have been tested with X and /spl gamma/ rays from /sup 241/Am; the best measured energy resolution is 2.7 keV FWHM at room temperature.