The current work is devoted to studying the evolution of deep level defects in the lower half of the 4H-SiC bandgap after high temperature processing and ion implantation. Two as-grown and pre-oxidized 4H-SiC sets of samples have been thermally treated at temperatures up to 1950 C for 10 min duration using RF inductive heating. Another set of as grown samples was implanted by 4.2 MeV Si ions at room temperature (RT) with different doses (1–4× 10 8 cm− 2). The so-called “D-center” at Ev+0. 6 eV dominates and forms ...