Structural and morphological investigations of the initial stages in solid source molecular beam epitaxy of SiC on (111)Si

The solid source molecular beam epitaxy is known to allow the lowest process temperatures to grow SiC on silicon. In this work, we investigated the nucleation and the initial SIC growth and propose a growth model in dependence on the supersaturation. At high supersaturation, a smooth continuous layers with large voids in the substrate and especially at low temperatures non-cubic inclusions are formed. At low supersaturations. we found large islands which are separated by deep trenches. Both cases allow an unlimited silicon transport to the surface. In an intermediate range, both types of defects can be reduced. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.