High Electrical Conductivity and High Hardness in Cubic Silicon Carbide Single Crystals

The intrinsic trade-off between electrical conductivity and hardness has been a longstanding obstacle in simultaneously enhancing both properties in materials. Here, we report a strategy to overcome this dilemma by utilizing the striking disparity effects of heavy doping on electrical and mechanical properties. A high room-temperature electrical conductivity of 3.03 × 105 S/m is achieved alongside a high nanoindentation hardness of 39.9 ± 1.9 GPa and an elastic modulus of 525.9 ± 13.0 GPa in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) single crystals with a N-doping level of ∼0.5 at %. The unprecedented combination of these two properties in compound semiconductors confirms the disparity effects of N doping, as manifested by a significant increase in electrical conductivity due to a large nitrogen solubility (∼0.5 at %), while there is a negligible impact (∼1% decrease) on hardness upon N doping. This strategy may find applications in other covalent compounds or semiconductors for acquiring both electrical and mechanical properties.

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Publication Details

Journal
Crystal Growth & Design
Published
2025-12-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.5c01665
Primary Topic
Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

High Electrical Conductivity and High Hardness in Cubic Silicon Carbide Single Crystals

Junwei Yang, Wenjun Wang, Da Sheng, Yehua Huang et al.
Crystal Growth & Design
Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies
article

High Electrical Conductivity and High Hardness in Cubic Silicon Carbide Single Crystals

Junwei Yang, Wenjun Wang, Da Sheng, Yehua Huang, Huiyang Gou, Hui Li, Zhaolong Liu, Yunfan Yang, Xiaolong Chen, Guobin Wang, Chen Xu, Zesheng Zhang
article en

Abstract

The intrinsic trade-off between electrical conductivity and hardness has been a longstanding obstacle in simultaneously enhancing both properties in materials. Here, we report a strategy to overcome this dilemma by utilizing the striking disparity effects of heavy doping on electrical and mechanical properties. A high room-temperature electrical conductivity of 3.03 × 105 S/m is achieved alongside a high nanoindentation hardness of 39.9 ± 1.9 GPa and an elastic modulus of 525.9 ± 13.0 GPa in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) single crystals with a N-doping level of ∼0.5 at %. The unprecedented combination of these two properties in compound semiconductors confirms the disparity effects of N doping, as manifested by a significant increase in electrical conductivity due to a large nitrogen solubility (∼0.5 at %), while there is a negligible impact (∼1% decrease) on hardness upon N doping. This strategy may find applications in other covalent compounds or semiconductors for acquiring both electrical and mechanical properties.

Crystal Growth & DesignVol. 26(1)
ON Semiconductor (United States) (US), Lattice Semiconductor (United States) (US), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ), Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (CN), Institute of Physics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), China Southern Power Grid (China) (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 60%
Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Technologies
DOISourceOpenAlex
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