Temperature-dependent measurements were made of the Raman spectra of free-standing films of microcrystalline 3C-type material. The measurements were performed under direct laser heating of the films at temperatures of up to 1700K. The temperature dependence of the TO- and LO-phonon frequencies agreed well with that of monocrystalline 3C-SiC, but the Raman lines were considerably broader. The effect of stacking faults upon the line-width was compared with computer-simulated Raman intensity profiles for 3C-SiC structures which had randomly distributed stacking faults. Good agreement was found with respect to the line-width and disorder-induced peak shift if the average stacking fault distance was assumed to be 0.6nm. An irreversible narrowing of the Raman lines at temperatures above 1900K was attributed to the annealing of stacking faults in 3C- SiC.

Raman Scattering in Polycrystalline 3C-SiC: Influence of Stacking Faults. S.Rohmfeld, M.Hundhausen, L.Ley: Physical Review B, 1998, 58[15], 9858-62