Critical assessment of birefringence imaging of dislocations in 6H silicon carbide

► In silicon carbide, birefringence patterns associated to small dislocations allow to recover the Burgers vector component in the basal plane. ► The influence of residual stress on the birefringence pattern is analyzed and its modeling is experimentally validated. ► KOH etching and birefringence imaging give complementary information. ► Critical assessment of birefringence imaging is given.