Atomic-scale characterization of Si(110)/6H-SiC(0001) heterostructure by HRTEM

• Si/SiC heterojunction was employed to realize non-UV light operation of SiC devices.
• Si films of preferred orientation have been prepared on 6H-SiC (0001) successfully.
• HRTEM results indicate that Si film has epitaxial connection with the 6H-SiC substrate.
• The atomic-structure of Si(110)/SiC(0001) interface is defined by HRTEM.
• The misfit dislocation density at Si(110)/SiC(0001) interface is calculated.

The atomic structure of Si(110)/SiC(0001) heterojunctions prepared on 6H-SiC(0001) was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. An FCC-on-HCP parallel epitaxy is achieved for the Si(110)/SiC(0001) heterostructure with a growth temperature of 1050 °C and the in-plane orientation relationship is Si[1-10]//6H-SiC[11-20]. The pure edge misfit dislocations with a Burgers vector of 13<11-20>SiC parallel to the interface are observed to accommodate the extreme lattice mismatch. Along the in-plane orientation Si[1-10]SiC[11-20], the Si/6H-SiC interface has a 4:5 Si-to-SiC matching mode with a residual lattice-mismatch of 0.26%. The misfit dislocation density at the Si/SiC interface is calculated as 1.217×1014 cm−2.