Papers by Keyword: Polytype

Abstract: We use three dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo simulations on super-lattices to study the hetero-polytypical growth of cubic silicon carbide polytype (3C-SiC) on misoriented hexagonal (4H and 6H) substrates finding that the growth on misoriented (4°-10° degree off) 6H substrates, with step bunched surfaces, can strongly improve the quality of the cubic epitaxial film promoting 3C single domain growths

Abstract: Relatively little is known about the transition metal defects in silicon carbide (SiC). In this study we applied highly convergent and sophisticated density functional theory (DFT) based methods to investigate important transition metal impurities including titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), niobium (Nb), chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo) and tungsten (W) in cubic 3C and hexagonal 4H and 6H polytypes of SiC. We found two classes among the considered transition metal impurities: Ti, V and Cr clearly prefer the Si-substituting configuration while W, Nb, and Mo may fractionally form a complex with carbon vacancy in hexagonal SiC even under thermal equilibrium. If the metal impurity is implanted into SiC or when many carbon impurities exist during the growth of SiC then complex formation between Si-substituting metal impurity and the carbon vacancy should be considered. This complex pair configuration exclusively prefers the hexagonal-hexagonal sites in hexagonal polytypes and may be absent in cubic polytype. We also studied transition metal doped nano 3C-SiC crystals in order to check the effect of the crystal field on the d-orbitals of the metal impurity.

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: We investigated the effects of the solution growth process on the polytype and crystal quality of the crystals grown on (111) 3C-SiC seed crystals. In spite of the use of 3C-SiC seed crystals, the polytype of the grown crystal changed from 3C-SiC to 6H-SiC, because the stacking errors easily occur due to the similarity of the (111) face of 3C-SiC and the (0001) face of 6H-SiC. Moreover, the grown 6H-SiC crystal affected the crystal quality of the seed crystal, i.e., high-density stacking faults were induced in the seed crystal after the growth process.

Abstract: This work reports on the in-situ observation of a polytype switch during physical vapor transport (PVT) growth of bulk SiC crystals by x-ray diffraction. A standard PVT reactor for 2” and 3” bulk growth was set up in a high-energy x-ray diffraction lab. Due to the high penetration depth of the high-energy x-ray beam no modification of the PVT reactor was necessary in order to measure Laue diffraction patterns of the growing crystal with good signal to noise ratio. We report for the first time upon the in-situ observation of polytype switching during SiC bulk PVT growth.

Abstract: A solution growth of 3C-SiC was performed on (111)Si-face or )111(C-face of 3C-SiC seed crystal at around 1700 °C by dipping method. The polytype of the crystal grown on the Si-face immediately changed to 6H-SiC. On the other hand, 3C-SiC stably grew on the C-face except for a small number of 6H-SiC precipitates. The polytype transition phenomenon can be explained by the difference of the chemical potential and the solution-crystal interfacial energy between 3C-SiC and 6H-SiC. To grow a larger 3C-SiC crystal, we carried out a long-term growth for 30 hours on the C-face. In the first 10 hours, the polytype of the grown crystal was 3C-SiC. In the next 10 hours, however, the polytype changed from 3C-SiC to 6H-SiC. According to our studies, 6H-SiC tends to grow on 6H-SiC at around 1700 °C, while both of 3C-SiC and 6H-SiC can grow on 3C-SiC at around the same temperature. In this case, 6H-SiC grows on 6H-SiC precipitates and then the dominant polytype changes to 6H-SiC after several 6H-SiC precipitations. To grow 3C-SiC crystal stably, it is necessary to surpress completely the polytype transition by the growth on C-face at lower growth temperatures.

Abstract: We investigated effects of Ti and Ge additions to Si solvent on the volume and the polytype of SiC precipitate in unseeded SiC solution growth. The Ti addition increased the amount of SiC precipitates. Compared to pure Si solvent, the amount of crystal grown in Si-30at%Ti at 1600 °C increased by 5 times. In addition, the Ti addition induced the precipitation of 6H-SiC. Further, the Ge addition to Si-Ti solvent promoted several polytype precipitations (4H and 6H). These results indicate the possibility of polytype control by solvent composition.

Abstract: We report density functional calculations using the full-potential linearized muffin-tin orbital method on early first row transition metal doped Silicon Carbide in both cubic (3C) and hexagonal (4H) polytypes. The energy levels in the gap for Ti, V and Cr are in good agreement with the available photoluminescence experiments. Our calculation shows that the Ti impurity is active for 4H but not for 3C, while V and Cr impurities are active for both polytypes. The magnetic interactions are very different for Cr and Mn. Cr shows a very local exchange interaction that decays rapidly, which is similar for different polytypes and different sites. The exchange interaction for Mn is quite long range and is very sensitive to the location of the Mn pairs.

Abstract: 6H-SiC ingots were grown with different growth interfaces at different rates via the sublimation method. A model for the step flow growth mechanism is proposed to interpret the occurrence of 15R-SiC inclusions in the 6H-SiC single crystal. The results show that the 15R-SiC occurs more easily on the convex and the concave interface than on the slight convex interface and 15R-SiC inclusion also occurs when the growth rate of 6H-SiC exceeds the critical rate of 300 %m/h with the slight convex interface at the seed temperature 2250°C.

Abstract: Structural defects and degree of order of natural and synthetic moissanite have been investigated by XRD Topography and TEM. XRDT analyses of synthetic 6H-SiC wafers allowed to study extended defects and to identify and localize coalescence of polytypes. The observed linear defects are microchannels and dislocations. Axial screw dislocations, either parallel or slightly inclined to the c-axis, suggest that the growth mechanism for the bulk crystals was mainly by spiral growth. Moreover, the study of line orientations of the dislocations allow to reconstruct the growth sector evolution of the sample. Therefore, the convex shape of the growing surface is attained by the development of growth sectors (10l) neighbouring growth sector (001). The coalescence of a thin lamella of a different polytype has been also localized and investigated. The contrast analysis and the diffraction pattern of the lamella are consistent with a 15R-SiC crystal. Such coalescence indicates local variations of growth conditions. TEM images and selected area electron diffractions (SAEDs) strongly differentiate natural from synthetic samples. SAED patterns with [010] incidence of natural crystals are consistent with the 6H polytype and do not show streaks along the [001] stacking direction. Synthetic samples are comparatively much more disordered. Conventional images show high density of (001) faults, not observed in natural samples. Consistently, SAED patterns of the [100] zone are streaked along c*. High resolution (HR) imaging shows that synthetic samples mainly consist of (001) stacking sequence described as (32)3. Locally mixed stacking sequence described by notation 23(3233)5, probably referred to a long period polytype, are present.