Selective growth of p-doped SiC on diamond substrate by vapor–liquid–solid mechanism from Al–Si liquid phase

• Localized growth of highly p-doped 3C-SiC has been performed on monocrystalline CVD diamond substrates.
• The deposit is polycrystalline and does not show any epitaxial relationship with the diamond substrate (100).
• Dissolution/precipitation assisted by VLS has been identified as the growth mechanism.
• Preliminary electrical measurements show that the deposit exhibits on ohmic behavior.

This works deals with the localized growth of SiC on monocrystalline (100) diamond surface. It describes an attempt of selective epitaxy using vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) transport. Patterns of Al–Si stacking were melted and fed by propane. Morphology, structure and doping type of the SiC deposit were evaluated. The deposit was found to be successfully selective but polycrystalline, with the 3C-SiC polytype. Study of the initial step of growth showed that SiC nucleation occurs without any propane addition but just through the interaction of liquid Al–Si and diamond via a dissolution/precipitation process. The VLS transport mainly assists the growth of these nuclei by providing a secondary carbon source. This explains the random nucleation and the polycrystalline growth. Despite this, the deposit was dense enough to perform some preliminary electrical measurements which show encouraging results.