Gas Fed Top-Seeded Solution Growth of Silicon Carbide

The growth of SiC crystals or epilayers from the liquid phase has already been reported for many years. Even if the resulting material can be of very high structural quality and the possibility to close micropipes was demonstrated, handling the liquid phase still is a challenge. Moreover, it is highly difficult to stabilize the C dissolution front and then to stabilize the growth front over a long growth time. Based on the Vapour-Liquid-Solid mechanism, we present a new configuration for the growth of SiC single crystal which should allow first to simplify the liquid handling at high temperature and second to precisely control the crystal growth front. The process consists in a modified top seeded solution growth method, in which the liquid is held under electromagnetic levitation and fed from the gas phase. In a Co-Si solution fed from a propane flow at 1350°C, thick epitaxial layers of 4H-SiC have been grown at 28 0m/h. The potentiality of this new process will be discussed in the paper.