Growth of high-quality 3C-SiC epitaxial films on off-axis Si(001) substrates at 850 °C by reactive magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Single crystal 3C‐SiC films of thickness ∼10 μm were grown by reactive magnetron sputtering on off‐axis Si(001) at 850 °C. The film quality was comparable to the best chemical vapor deposited 3C‐SiC as characterized by x‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and photo‐ luminescence (PL). The lattice mismatch and difference in thermal contraction between SiC and Si resulted in complete arrays of misfit dislocations at the film/substrate interface and a residual in‐plane strain of (−6.9±1)×10⁻⁴, respectively. The full width at half‐maximum (FWHM) of the 3C‐SiC(004) peak was 59 arcsec in ω‐2θ direction. The structural defects in the SiC film were planar faults on {111} planes and no voids or plastic deformation in the Si substrate were observed. PL spectra of SiC films showed characteristic appearances with N bound‐exciton (N‐BE) lines with a FWHM value of 3.4 meV. The deposition conditions leading to low defect‐density 3C‐SiC films are discussed in terms of low‐energy ion‐surface interactions.