Silicon carbide is known for its potential in high power, high radiation and high temperature applications. It is also one of the first materials observed with phenomenon of electroluminescence. Depending on the mechanism of recombination, carriers inside silicon carbide recombine and release photons at different wavelengths. As one of the third-generation semiconductors, many studies focus on the effects of defects on silicon carbide device stability and performance. Especially for defects like stacking faults, which can be generated either during fabrication or induced by current under forward bias, can cause severe device degradation and limits the use of silicon carbide. By testing electroluminescence of silicon carbide, one can analyses the recombination event and identify the defects that trapped carriers, as each recombination mechanism would be shown as a unique emission peak on the sample EL spectra. In addition to the as-grown and recombination-induced defects, the changes of spectrum due to stress and chemical etching indicate the influence of external factors to the defects that are either existed prior to the external forces or that were induced during the testing. Such analysis could be helpful to understand the defect generation mechanism, reduce the density of the defects and to create innovative ideas for future applications. A general introduction to silicon carbide will be given in Chapter 1 with some detailed description of silicon carbide defect generation and characterization mechanisms in Chapter 2. In Chapters 3 and 4, the focus is to analyse the external effects to the spectrum of 4H silicon carbide, like chemical etching and mechanical stress. Before giving the conclusion in Chapter 6, Chapter 5 will be focusing on analysing the effect of external forces on the silicon carbide with stacking faults existed prior to the testing. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)