Papers by Author: Tai Hee Eun

Abstract: We investigated the relation between the nucleation of dislocations and the lattice misfits by nitrogen concentration difference between seed and grown crystal during the initial stage of growth. 4H-SiC single crystals were grown with various nitrogen gas flow rates introduced into the crystal growing chamber under the same temperature and pressure to minimize the effect of thermal stress on the nucleation of dislocations. The nitrogen atomic concentrations of grown crystals depended on the introduced nitrogen gas ratios and they highly increased at the very early stage of growth. The generation of new threading dislocations at the interface also was affected by the nitrogen atomic concentrations differences between seed and grown crystals. Very few generated threading dislocations were observed in low nitrogen atomic concentration samples, however nucleation of threading dislocations at the interface were found in high nitrogen atomic concentrations samples. At initial stages of PVT growth process, the generation of threading dislocations induced by lattice misfits originated from nitrogen concentration difference between seed and grown crystals were investigated and found the appropriate nitrogen gas flow rates and profile at the heating and depressurized stage.

Abstract: The generation and transformation of dislocations in 4H-SiC crystals grown by PVT were investigated. Experiments were carried out in two stages for more comprehensive observation on dislocation behaviors. For the first stage known as initial growth, we investigated mainly the seed and grown interface. The behavior and transition of the dislocations in grown crystal were observed along the length of the crystal at second stage. The formation of threading edge dislocations (TEDs) strongly depends on the surface morphologies related with internal temperature gradients during crystal growth. The basal plane dislocation (BPDs) and threading screw dislocation (TSDs) cause from the seed crystal and formed at the initial stage of growth were gradually decreased in number along the length of the crystal and under certain conditions such as distorted stresses, dislocations were converted into other types of dislocations.

Abstract: The effect of the porous graphite plate above the source material on properties of silicon carbide (SiC) crystals grown by Physical Vapor Transport method has been investigated. The porous graphite plate was inserted on source powder to produce a more C-rich for the polytype stability of 4H-SiC crystal and a uniform radial temperature gradient. The dendrite structure obtained from SiC source powder in the crucible with porous graphite plate was more densely formed than that in the conventional crucible. The crystal quality of 4H-SiC single crystals grown in porous graphite inserted crucible was revealed to be better than that of crystal grown SiC crystals in the conventional crucible.

Abstract: The present research was focused to extensively investigate the effect of TaC-coated crucible on the SiC crystal growth and then compare the difference of various properties between SiC crystals grown in conventional graphite crucible and TaC-coated crucible. The bulk growth was conducted around 2200°C of the growth temperature and 40 mbar of an argon atmosphere for the growth pressure. The better crystalline quality was obtained from the crystal grown in TaC-coated crucible. The SiC crystal grown in the TaC-coated crucible exhibited superior characteristics than SiC crystal grown in the conventional crucible in terms of the crystal quality and defect density. Furthermore, nitrogen incorporation in SiC crystal grown in the TaC-coated crucible was definitely decreased.

Abstract: The present research was focused to investigate various process parameters influenced on the large 4H-SiC crystal growth on a 6H-SiC seed by PVT method. The crucible diameter along horizontal axial direction and inserted graphite ring was modified to change the growth parameter like the temperature gradient. In the initial stage of growth, foreign polytypes such as 6H/4H were observed on 6H-SiC seed, indicating the growth temperature to be unstable on crystal surface. However, from the middle of growth step, 4H-SiC was successfully formed in the ingot with the modification of growth pressure and a SIMS analysis confirmed the high doping concentration in grown 4H-SiC crystal.

Abstract: The single crystal ingots by using a sublimation technique were grown on 6H-SiC dual-seed crystals with opposite face polarities and then SiC crystal wafers sliced from the SiC ingot were systematically investigated to find out the polarity dependence of the crystal quality. The growth rate of the SiC crystal grown in this study was about 0.2mm/hr. N-type 2’’ SiC crystals exhibiting the 4H- and 6H-SiC polytype were successfully fabricated on C-face and Si-face, respectively. The incorporation of nitrogen donors in the SiC crystals grown on the C-face seed crystal was exhibited to be higher than in SiC crystals grown on a Si-face crystal. When the SiC crystal ingot proceeded to grow, the SiC crystal region grown on the C-face seed crystal was enlarged compared to the SiC crystal region on the Si-face seed crystal.

Abstract: Extensive study of various process parameters to influence on the growth of 4H-SiC crystal has been carried out using the transformation of the 6H-SiC seed by a PVT method. The axial temperature gradients were increased throughout increasing the crucible length along growth direction in order to enhance the growth rate and transformed crystal yield. The N2/Ar gas ratio used during the crystal growth related with carrier concentration/mobility of grown crystal. In the initial stage of growth, foreign polytypes such as 6H/15R were observed on 6H-SiC seed crystal but 4H crystals were entirely grown after the process optimization. While the typical absorption spectrum of SiC seed crystal indicated that the SiC polytype was the 6H-SiC with fundamental absorption energy of about 3.02eV, absorption spectrum of grown SiC crystal exhibited 4H-SiC with fundamental absorption energy of about 3.26eV. The entirely transformed SiC region exhibited lower micropipe density than 6H/4H transition region.