Influence of gravity on defect formation in homoepitaxial layers of SiC grown by sublimation

4H-SiC homoepitaxial growth has been performed by sublimation process. The basic transport mechanism and dynamics of the growth has been studied. Both, experiment and numerical modelling have been performed. It has been shown that high growth rate (0.1 mm/hour) can be obtained when the overall structural quality is very good and the surface morphology is excellent. However, deep level defects associated with impurities have been observed. Evidence has been obtained that the impurity incorporation may be influenced by gravity-induced growth instabilities. At this stage, numerical modelling of the growth process has been performed considering only macroscopic features. For the present experimental configuration, preliminary results reveal that the influence of microgravity is low. The macroscopic transfer phenomena leading to the growth of the crystal are mainly diffusive. The future is to design specific experiments involving higher temperature difference between source and seed, as well as to consider microscopic growth phenomena.