An investigation was made of the early stages of Si growth on 3C-type samples. It was found that adsorbed Si atoms on the surface formed elongated islands which were 2 to 3μm long and were parallel to the <110> direction. The formation of anisotropic islands was attributed to the anisotropic diffusivity of Si adatoms on the 3C-SiC surface. As the temperature during Si growth was about 1000C, the Si atoms on the surface were thought to be dimerized. A novel method was proposed for the observation of antiphase domains by exploiting these characteristics of Si island growth. The validity of the method was proved by comparing the present results with those obtained by means of NaOH etching.

Elongated Shaped Si Island Formation on 3C-SiC by Chemical Vapor Deposition and its Application to Antiphase Domain Observation Y.Ishida, T.Takahashi, H.Okumura, T.Sekigawa, S.Yoshida: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics - 1, 1999, 38[6A], 3470-4