Observations of the influence of threading dislocations on the recombination enhanced partial dislocation glide in 4H-silicon carbide epitaxial layers

Electron-hole recombination enhanced glide of Shockley partial dislocations bounding expanding stacking faults and their interactions with threading dislocations have been studied in 4H- silicon carbide epitaxial layers. The mobile silicon-core Shockley partial dislocations bounding the stacking faults are observed to cut through threading edge dislocations, leaving no trailing dislocation segments in their wake. When the Shockley partial dislocations interact with threading screw dislocations, 30 degrees partial dislocation dipoles are initially deposited in their wake. These partial dislocation dipoles quickly and spontaneously snap into screw orientation whereupon they cross slip and annihilate, leaving a prismatic stacking fault on the (2 (1) over bar(1) over bar0) plane. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.