Natural crystal habit and preferential growth directions during PVT of silicon carbide

We have investigated preferential growth directions and natural crystal habit during PVT growth of SiC. It is shown that the (-1100), (-1101) and (-1102) planes do not develop stable atomically flat facets, but interfaces consisting of a mixture of different faces. Contrary, the (01-15) facet is the most stable after the conventional (0001) facet. Hollow micropipe defects propagating along the [0001] axis of the seed are vanished in the grown crystal during growth performed on (01-15) plane. Polytype information is transmitted along the c-axis. Hollow cores generated at latter stages of growth are however aligned along growth direction. Growth along [01-15] is shown to be very promising for preparation of micropipe-free SiC.