Effect of AlN doping on the growth morphology of SiC

✍ Scribed by N. B. Singh; E. Jones; A. Berghmans; B. P. Wagner; E. Jelen; S. McLaughlin; D. J. Knuteson; M. Fitelson; M. King; D. Kahler

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 247 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0232-1300
• DOI: 10.1002/crat.200900386

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

AlN doped SiC films were deposited on on‐axis Si‐face 4H‐SiC (0001) substrates by the physical vapor transport (PVT) method. Thick film in the range of 20 μm range was grown and morphology was characterized. Films were grown by physical vapor deposition (PVD) in a vertical geometry in the nitrogen atmosphere. We observed that nucleation occurred in the form of discs and growth occurred in hexagonal geometry. The X‐ray studies showed (001) orientation and full width of half maxima (FWHM) was less than 0.1° indicating good crystallinity. We also observed that film deposited on the carbon crucible had long needles with anisotropic growth very similar to that of pure AlN. Some of the needles grew up to sizes of 200 μm in length and 40 to 50 μm in width. It is clear that annealing of SiC‐AlN powder or high temperature physical vapor deposition produces similar crystal structure for producing AlN‐SiC solid solution. SEM studies indicated that facetted hexagons grew on the top of each other and coarsened and merged to form cm size grains on the substrate. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)