A transmission electron microscopy investigation of SiC films grown on SiC substrates by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy

The relationship between the defect microstructure of SiC films grown by solid-source molecular-beam epitaxy on 4H and 6H–SiC substrates and their growth conditions, for substrate temperatures ranging between 950 and 1300 °C, has been investigated by a combination of transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The results demonstrate that the formation of defective cubic films is generally found to occur at temperatures below 1000 °C. At temperatures above 1000 °C our investigations prove that simultaneous supply of C and Si in the step-flow growth mode on vicinal 4H and 6H substrate surfaces results in defect-free hexagonal SiC layers, and defect-free cubic SiC can be grown by the alternating deposition technique. The controlled overgrowth of hexagonal on top of cubic layers is demonstrated for thin layer thicknesses.