Electrical characteristics of aluminum ion-implanted 4H-SiC were investigated. In order to prevent morphological surface degradation, samples were encapsulated with a dummy-SiC wafer during post-implantation annealing. Based on AFM analysis, no morphological surface degradation was observed in the samples annealed with the dummy-SiC wafer. The sheet resistance (Rs) of the implanted layer decreased with increasing annealing temperature between 1600degreesC and 1800degreesC. Rs as low as 2.3k Omega/square, a record low for any implanted p-type SiC layer, was obtained in a sample annealed at 1800degreesC. The decrease of Rs is mainly due to a higher carrier concentration with an increasing annealing temperature.