Accurate Determination of the Temperature Dependence of the Refractive Index of 4H-SiC at the Wavelength of 632 nm

The growing interest for the use of 4H-SiC in photonics is triggering the interest for more accurate characterizations of this semiconductor from the optical and opto-electronic point of view. In this work we report about new measurements run on an undoped 4H-SiC substrate, finalized at determining the precise dependence of its refractive index on temperature in the visible spectrum, and precisely at the wavelength of λ=632.8 nm, in a temperature range from room temperature (RT) to 400K. Measurements are performed by exploiting the properties of a Fabry-Perot cavity interrogated with a laser beam. It is known that the transmitted radiation intensity shows fringes that shift with temperature and the refractive index. By precisely monitoring the transmitted signal, the thermo-optic coefficient dn/dT can be determined with a resolution that approaches 10-6 K-1.