Low-dislocation-density 4H-SiC crystal growth utilizing dislocation conversion during solution method

We report a marked reduction in the dislocation density of a 4H-SiC crystal using a high-efficiency dislocation conversion phenomenon. During the solution growth, threading dislocations were efficiently converted to basal plane defects by the step flow of macrosteps. Utilizing this dislocation conversion phenomenon, we achieved the marked reduction of threading dislocation density. Consequently, the threading screw dislocation density was only 30 cm−2, which was two orders of magnitude lower than that of the seed crystal. The 4H-SiC polytype of the seed crystal was replicated in the grown crystal, which was attributed to the spiral growth owing to a few remaining threading screw dislocations upstream of the step flow.