Limitations during Vapor Phase Growth of Bulk (100) 3C-SiC Using 3C-SiC-on-SiC Seeding Stacks

The growth of 3C-SiC shows technological challenges, such as high supersaturation, a silicon-rich gas phase and a high vertical temperature gradient. We have developed a transfer method creating high-quality 3C-SiC-on-SiC (100) seeding stacks, suitable for use in sublimation "sandwich" epitaxy (SE). This work presents simulation data on the change of supersaturation and the temperature gradient between source and seed for the bulk growth. A series of growth runs on increased source to seed distances was characterized by XRD and Raman spectroscopy. Results show a decrease in quality in terms of single-crystallinity with a decrease in supersaturation. Morphology analysis of as-grown material indicates an increasing protrusion dimension with increasing thickness. This effect limits the achievable maximal thickness. Additional polytype inclusions were observed, which began to occur with low supersaturation (S ≤ 0.06) and prolonged growth (increase of carbon gas-species).