Nucleation of Threading Dislocations in 4H-SiC at Early Physical-Vapor-Transport Growth Stage

In this work, we identify the nucleation mechanism of threading dislocations (TDs) associated with stacking faults (SFs) and 15R-SiC at the early growth stage of 4H-SiC single crystals grown by the physical vapor transport (PVT) technology. By combining molten KOH etching and photochemical etching, we successfully reveal etch pits of TDs and linear etch patterns of SFs on the (112̅0) surface of 4H-SiC single crystals. Systematic investigations based on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations and Raman analysis indicate that the Si–C bilayer stacking sequence of SFs is (3, 2) in Zhdanov’s notation. The accumulation of SFs (3, 2) gives rise to the polymorph fluctuation and thus the formation of 15R-SiC at the early PVT growth stage of 4H-SiC single crystals. Quantitative stress analyses indicate that the strain field distributions along the SFs (3, 2) and the 15R-/4H-SiC interfaces are inhomogeneous, which give rise to the nucleation of TDs and low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs), respectively. The nucleation of LAGBs releases the high stress at the 15R-/4H-SiC interface, which facilities the following 4H-SiC single-crystal growth. Our work indicates that the avoidance of polymorph fluctuation is important to the reduction of TDs at the early growth stage of PVT-grown 4H-SiC single crystals.