Surface morphology of 3C–SiC layers grown on 4H–SiC substrates using TCS as silicon precursor

The hetero-epitaxial growth of 3C-SiC layers on on-axis 4H-SiC substrates has been demonstrated in a hot-wall CVD reactor using trichlorosilane and ethylene as precursors. The additional chlorine is supplied by hydrogen chloride for variation of Cl/Si ratio. The influence of temperature, C/Si ratio and Cl/Si ratio process parameters on the morphology is studied. Double-position-boundaries free 3C-SiC epitaxial layers have been successfully grown at the optimized condition, which is at a temperature of 1340°C, with C/Si = 0.6 and Cl/Si = 6 using a carbon-rich pretreatment. Low temperature near bandgap photoluminescence shows a good optical property of the obtained 3C-SiC epitaxial layers. Compared to the standard chemistry, a higher growth rate of 12 μm/h could be achieved by utilizing the chlorinated precursors. This study provides a feasible way to grow double-position-boundaries free 3C-SiC epitaxial layers using TCS as silicon precursor.