Observations have been made, using synchrotron white beam x-ray topography, of stacking faults in 4H–SiC with fault vectors of kind 1/6⟨202¯3⟩. A mechanism has been postulated for their formation which involves overgrowth by a macrostep of the surface outcrop of a c-axis threading screw dislocation, with two c/2-height surface spiral steps, which has several threading dislocations of Burgers vector c+a, with c-height spiral steps, which protrude onto the terrace in between the c/2-risers. Such overgrowth processes deflect the threading dislocations onto the basal plane, enabling them to exit the crystal and thereby providing a mechanism to lower their densities.
Synchrotron white beam x-ray topography (SWBXT) observations are reported of single-ended Frank-Read sources in 4H-SiC. These result from inter-conversion between basal plane dislocations (BPDs) and threading edge dislocations (TEDs) brought about by step interactions on the growth interface resulting in a dislocation comprising several glissile BPD segments on parallel basal planes interconnected by relatively sessile TED segments. Under stress, the BPD segments become pinned by the TED segments producing single ended Frank-Read sources. Since the BPDs appear to “hop” between basal planes, this apparently dominant multiplication mechanism for BPDs in 4H-SiC is referred to as the “Hopping” Frank-Read source mechanism.
Synchrotron White Beam X-ray Topography studies are presented of dislocation behavior and interactions in a new generation of seventy-six millimeter diameter, 4H-SiC wafers grown using Physical Vapor Transport under specially designed low stress conditions. Such low stress growth conditions have enabled reductions of dislocation density by two or three orders of magnitude compared to the lowest previously reported levels [1]. In this paper, detailed topography analysis will be presented of the deflection of threading dislocations with Burgers vectors of c and c+a onto the basal plane leading to reductions of the density of such dislocations down to levels of ~187 cm-2. The deflection of the latter type of dislocations produces complex faulted defect configurations and models for their creation are presented and discussed.
Numerical simulations of the thermal stress distribution in a SiC boule 2” in diameter and 1” long grown by conventional PVT technique were performed based on the temperature field distribution in a resistively heated growth reactor that was simulated using the GAMBIT-2.0.4/FIDAP-8.6.2 software package. Analysis of the simulation results revealed the existence of a thermal stress, which was excessively nonuniform in distribution and whose magnitude exceeded the value of the critical resolved shear stress of 1.0 MPa by a factor of 2. The high stress initiated plastic deformation and the high temperature provoked the intense self-diffusion processes. The combination of these factors alters the mechanism of plastic deformation, significantly affecting the structural quality of the growing crystal. The influence of self-diffusion processes initiating the formation of interstitial atoms and vacancies; stacking fault formation as a result of the nonconservative motion of the basal plane dislocations; and micropipe formation from the dislocation groups piled up at silicon and carbon second phase inclusions are also discussed.
Synchrotron White Beam X-ray Topography (SWBXT) studies are presented of basal plane dislocation (BPD) configurations and behavior in a new generation of 100mm diameter, 4H-SiC wafers with extremely low BPD densities (3-4 x 102 cm-2). The conversion of non-screw oriented, glissile BPDs into sessile threading edge dislocations (TEDs) is observed to provide pinning points for the operation of single ended Frank-Read sources. In some regions, once converted TEDs are observed to re-convert back into BPDs in a repetitive process which provides multiple BPD pinning points.
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