Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik
MM 29: Topical Session TEM VIII
MM 29.5: Vortrag
Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 16:45–17:00, IFW B
TEM Studies on Etch Pit Formation during the Nucleation of 3C-SiC on Si(001) — •Julian Müller1, Philip Hens2, Peter Wellmann2, and Erdmann Spiecker1 — 1CENEM, University Erlangen-Nuremberg — 2I-MEET, University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Due to its interesting electronic properties, cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) is widely investigated by many research groups. However, appropriate methods for bulk crystal growth are still lacking making it necessary to fabricate 3C-SiC in an epitaxial growth process. In view of microelectronic applications Si(001) is the most interesting substrate for epitaxial growth of 3C-SiC but the enormous lattice misfit (ca. 20%) leads to a high density of microstructural defects like dislocations, stacking faults and micro twins.
Within this work different heating rates have been applied during the growth of an initial 3C-SiC nucleation layer on Si(001) to investigate the impact on the final layer quality. It turned out that fewer grains nucleate at faster heating rates resulting in an improved layer quality. By TEM a new type of etch pit was detected, which differs from the well-known faceted voids reported in the literature. TEM investigations unambiguously revealed that the etch pits are filled with a continuous film of highly defective SiC. Both, the voids and the etch pits penetrate into the silicon. The etch pit formation can be ascribed to the contamination of the epitaxial deposition system with residual carbon, for which reason the cleanliness of the reaction chamber is proposed to be a crucial parameter for the growth of epitaxial 3C-SiC.