Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
8152012 Journal of Crystal Growth 2013 7 Pages PDF
Abstract
A comprehensive study on the step-controlled homoepitaxial growth on the (0001)Si-face of vicinal 4H-SiC substrates was performed in order to establish epitaxial growth on 2° towards 〈112¯0〉 off-cut substrates and 4° towards 〈11¯00〉 off-cut substrates. A standard epitaxial growth process was developed by optimizing the growth temperature T, Si/H ratio and C/Si ratio for growth on 4° towards 〈112¯0〉 off-cut substrates. Thereby, step-controlled epitaxial growth was achieved within a broad operating window. The surface roughness of such epilayers varies typically between rms=0.5 nm and rms=2.5 nm and step-controlled growth is conserved even at a growth rate of 27μm/h. Then, the standard growth process was applied to substrates with different off-cut angles α of 2°, 4° and 8° as well as with different off-cut directions 〈112¯0〉 and 〈11¯00〉. The step-controlled growth was achieved also within a wide range of Si/H ratio and C/Si ratio for growth on 8° and 4° off-cut substrates, but the process window narrows strongly for growth on 2° off-cut substrates. The epilayers' surface roughness increases with decreasing off-cut angle of the substrate. Epilayers grown on 4° towards 〈11¯00〉 off-cut substrates were significantly smoother than epilayers grown on 4° towards 〈112¯0〉 off-cut substrates. No influence of the substrates' off-cut angle and direction on the growth rate was found. The experimental results of this comprehensive study are discussed globally in consideration of other relevant publications.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Physics and Astronomy Condensed Matter Physics
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