Trihedral configurations of stacking faults were observed in X-ray topographs of a 3C-SiC platelet. The trihedra were formed from stacking faults which lay on three {111} planes, while stair-rod dislocations formed their edges. The open sides of the trihedra extended to the crystal surface; thus giving these defects the same form as the open-ended stacking-fault tetrahedra that were sometimes observed in the transmission electron microscopy of misfit-strained epitaxial layers. However, these trihedra were much larger (40 to 200µm across) and were growth defects which arose from a mechanism other than the condensation of vacancies or the release of misfit strain.

Open-Ended Stacking-Fault Tetrahedra in X-Ray Topographs of Cubic Silicon Carbide. W.M.Vetter, M.Dudley: Philosophical Magazine Letters, 2003, 83[8], 473-6