Molecular dynamics simulation of interfacial growth of SiC from Si-C solution on different growth planes

A critical issue in solution growth of 4H-SiC crystal is to control the morphology at the growth interface. We conducted a molecular dynamics simulation of interfacial growth of SiC from Si-C solution to understand the atomic-scale growth behavior on the different growth planes of 3C-SiC, 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC. The growth rates on the basal plane were smaller than those on the other planes. To understand the growth modes on the growth planes, calculations of growth behavior on the 4H-SiC {0001}, {101¯0} and {101¯2} were performed with larger cells. The growth interface of 4H-SiC {101¯0} and {101¯2} tended to become rough, whereas 4H-SiC {0001} maintained a flat interface. Possible growth modes were estimated from a correlation between the growth rate and the crystal structure.