Effect of different Ge predeposition amounts on SiC grown on Si (1 1 1)

• Published in: Applied surface science Vol. 255; no. 11; pp. 5698 - 5701
• Main Authors: Liu, Zhongliang, Ren, Peng, Liu, Jinfeng, Tang, Jun, Xu, Pengshou
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.03.2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electron diffraction and scattering; Exact sciences and technology; Ge predeposition; Low-energy electron diffraction (leed) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (rheed); Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Molecular, atomic, ion, and chemical beam epitaxy; Physics; SiC; SSMBE; Structure and morphology; thickness; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Thin film structure and morphology; Ge predeposition; 68.37.Ps; 07.85.Jy; Si; SSMBE; 81.15.Hi; SiC; 61.14.Hg; Atomic force microscopy; Inorganic compounds; Roughness; XRD; RHEED; Film growth; Voids; Silicon carbide; Molecular beam epitaxy; Germanium; Silicon
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2008.12.059

The SiC films were grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy (SSMBE) on Si (1 1 1) with different amounts of Ge predeposited on Si prior to the epitaxial growth of SiC. The samples were investigated with reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that there is an optimized Ge predeposition amount of 0.2 nm. The optimized Ge predeposition suppress the Si outdiffusion and reduce the formation of voids. For the sample without Ge predeposition, the Si outdiffusion can be observed in RHEED and the results of XRD show the worse quality of SiC film. For the sample with excess amount of Ge predeposition, the excess Ge can increase the roughness of the surface which induces the poor quality of the SiC film.