Materials Science Forum Vols. 717-720

Abstract: Selective epitaxial growth in buried patterns was studied using the vapour-liquid-solid mechanism in Al-Si melt in order to obtain p+-doped SiC localized layers on 4H-SiC substrate. Homogeneous deposition with step bunched morphology was obtained by adding propane at room temperature before growth at 1100°C. Patterns as large as 800 µm and as narrow as 10 µm were completely filled in this way. The deposition kinetics demonstrates that the process is self limited and mainly depends on the initial amount of Si in the liquid. The deposit is highly p-type doped and the p-n junction is demonstrated.

Abstract: A reliable method for reducing the stacking faults (SFs) is demonstrated on the 3C-SiC (001) surface. It is a practical method based on Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of SF propagation during 3C-SiC epitaxial growth, which showed that introducing some discontinuity on the (001) surface enhanced SF reduction. The method is implemented by patterning on the 3C-SiC (001) surface and subsequent homo-epitaxial growth, and this sufficiently reduced the SF density to less than 400 cm^-1. A yield of 97.4 % was estimated for a device-ready area of 10 mm² by statistical measurements of SF density on the entire epitaxial layer surface.

Abstract: In this work a new approach for the production of freestanding cubic silicon carbide (3C SiC) in (001) orientation is presented which is based on the combination of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and the fast sublimation growth process (FSGP). Fast homoepitaxial growth of 3C SiC using sublimation epitaxy on a template created by CVD growth on silicon substrates allows to obtain thick freestanding material with low defect densities. Using standard silicon wafers as substrate material permits a cost efficient process and the applying of wafers with different orientations. The (001) orientation used in this work will potentially allow further heteroepitaxial growth of other cubic semiconductors, like e.g. gallium nitride (GaN).

Abstract: To demonstrate the formation of 3C-SiC film on Si (111) at low substrate temperature, the effects of C₃H₈ on the crystalline quality of the 3C-SiC films on Si (111) have been investigated by changing the flow rate of C₃H₈ at the substrate temperature of 950 °C. The crystalline quality has been investigated by transmission electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. 3C-SiC is epitaxially grown on Si(111) and the 3C-SiC films are in either near single crystalline or highly oriented form with stacking faults and twin. It is expected that the film with good crystalline quality may grow at around 2.5 in the ratio of the flow rate of C₃H₈ to SiH₄ and any microstructures of 3C-SiC films on Si (111) can be controlled by accurately controlling the ratio of C/Si.

Abstract: The CVD growth of SiC thin films using hexamethyldisilane (HMDS) as the singular precursor on Si substrates with an AlN nucleation layer was explored in this study. A statistically designed experiment was used to conclude that growth temperature has the largest impact on crystal quality and surface microstructure. In addition to crystal quality, wafer bow was studied. Crystal quality and growth rate are loosely correlated to wafer bow in our study. SEM surface microstructural analysis of the SiC films shows a changing microstructure with growth temperature consistent changes in measured crystal quality. TEM studies reveal that the films are the 3C polytype having a high density of planar faults.

Abstract: This study has been focused on 3C-SiC epitaxial growth on 4H-SiC (0001) on-axis substrates using the standard CVD chemistry. Several growth parameters were investigated, including growth temperature, in-situ etching process and C/Si ratio. High quality single domain 3C epilayers could be obtained around 1350 °C, with propane present during pre-growth etching and when the C/Si ratio was equal to 1. The best grown layer is 100% 3C-SiC and single domain. The net n-type background doping is around 2x10¹⁶ cm^-3. The surface roughness of the layers from AFM analysis is in the 3 to 8 nm range on a 50x50 μm2 area.

Abstract: Heteroepitaxial growth of 3C-SiC on 0.8 and 1.2 degree off-oriented 6H-SiC substrates was studied using a sublimation growth process. The 3C-SiC layers were grown at high growth rates with layer thickness up to 300 µm. The formation and the quality of 3C-SiC are influenced by the off-orientation of the substrate, the growth temperature (studied temperature range from 1750 °C to 1850°C), and the growth ambient (vacuum at 5*10^-5 mbar and nitrogen at 5*10^-1 mbar). The largest domains of 3C-SiC and the lowest number of double positioning boundaries were grown using nitrogen ambient and the highest growth temperature. The combined use of low off-axis substrate and high growth rate is a potential method to obtain material with bulk properties.

Abstract: A DC dual magnetron sputtering system with graphite (C) and silicon (Si) targets was used to grow stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric silicon carbide (SixCy) thin films at low temperature. Two independently DC power sources were used to enable the total discharge power be shared, under certain proportions, between the Si and C magnetron cathodes. The motivation was to control the sputtering rate of each target so as to vary the stoichiometric ratio x/y of the deposited films. The species content, thickness and chemical bonds of as-deposited SixCy films were studied by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), profilometry analysis and Fourier transform infrared absorption (FTIR), respectively. Overall, the present work reveals a new reliable plasma sputtering technique for low temperature growth of amorphous SixCy thin films with the capability of tuning the degree of formation of a-SiC, a-Si and a-C bonds in the film bulk.

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: A commonly observed unidentified photoluminescence center in SiC is UD-1. In this report, the UD-1 center is identified to be tungsten related. The identification is based on (i) a W-doping study, the confirmation of W in the samples was made using deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), (ii) the optical activation energy of the absorption of UD-1 in weakly n-type samples corresponds to the activation energy of the deep tungsten center observed using DLTS. The tungsten-related optical centers are reported in 4H-, 6H-, and 15R-SiC. Further, a crystal field model for a tungsten atom occupying a Si-site is suggested. This crystal field model is in agreement with the experimental data available: polarization, temperature dependence and magnetic field splitting.