New evidence for the second conduction band in 4H SiC

Differential absorption measurements were taken on ultra-pure boule pieces and epitaxial films of 4H SiC. The energy range of particular interest is from 3.40 eV to 3.52 eV. The free exciton energy gap associated with the second lowest conduction band at the M point in the Brillouin zone was determined to be E
_GX-2
= 3.4107 eV. This value is obtained from phonon assisted free exciton transitions involving the second conduction band measured in transmission with polarization E⊥c. The energy separation of the two lowest conduction bands is determined to be 144 ± 2 meV. Some replica peaks attributable to the spin orbit splitting in the valence band are also seen.