Growing 3C-SiC heteroepitaxial layers on [alpha]-SiC substrate by vapour-liquid-solid mechanism from the Al-Ge-Si ternary system

• Published in: Journal of crystal growth Vol. 318; no. 1; pp. 397 - 400
• Main Authors: Lorenzzi, Jean, Ferro, Gabriel, Cauwet, Francois, Souliere, Veronique, Carole, Davy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-03-2011
• Subjects: Aluminum; Binary systems; Crystal growth; Deposits; Liquid phases; Melts; Polytypes; Silicon carbide
• ISSN: 0022-0248
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2010.10.174

In this work, we present and compare the results obtained from different Si-based melts (Ge-Si, Al-Si and Al-Ge-Si) for growing SiC layers on [alpha]-SiC substrate by vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. It was found that, depending on melt composition, the deposit could be either a complete 3C or [alpha]-SiC layer or even a mixture of these polytypes. The binary Al-Si melt leads systematically to a highly p-type homoepitaxial [alpha]-SiC deposit while Ge-Si melt gives a non-intentional n-type doped layers of either 3C or 6H polytypes depending on growth conditions. However, highly p-type doped 3C heteroepitaxial deposit can be obtained if a small amount of Al is added to the Ge-Si binary liquid phase. This means that the VLS mechanism is very flexible and allows growing either n- or p-type SiC layers of 3C or 6H polytypes.