Experimental assessment of metal solvents for low-temperature liquid-phase epitaxy of silicon carbide

Epitaxial growth of SiC from Al–Si solution reacting with propane gas

“…arvi et al [4] used Si+Sc as a solvent to increase the carbon solubility, and using a traveling solvent method, they achieved a very high growth rate, although the low-temperature growth could not be realized. In the past, Berman et al [5] tried to use the decomposition of methyltrichlorosilane gas as the SiC source, and using a molten nickel intermediate, they reported 3C-SiC growth on a-SiC substrates at 1200-1300 C. Recently, Mauk et al [6] reported the low-temperature LPE, in which Al-Zn solution was used as a solvent for SiC solid source, and the Zn component was evaporated at 900-1200 C to leave SiC on 6H-SiC substrates. Jacquier et al [7] showed a dipping method practically operating in the temperature range of 1000-1200 C, in which Al-rich Al-Si solution was used as solvent for carbon dissolved from a carbon crucible.…”

Liquid-Phase Epitaxy

“…For example, solvent evaporation for the growth of bulk CdTe grown from a Cd-rich Cd-Te melt was reported by Vere et al [201]. Mauk et al [205] grew SiC layers on SiC substrates from Zn-Al-Si-C solutions wherein Zn evaporation induces supersaturation with respect to SiC. Khukhryanskii [203] developed a model of solvent-evaporation LPE based on liquid-phase diffusion and surface evaporation of a multicomponent melt for silicon LPE.…”

“…For LPE of 50-mm thick In 0.95 Ga 0.05 As epilayers, fast cooling rates (80 C/min) yielded higher (0.3%) lattice constant changes, while retaining mirrorlike surfaces. Thick (>100 mm) multilayer composites of InAsSb, InGaSb, AlGaAsSb, InGaAsSb, and InAsSbP have been grown by LPE with abrupt compositional step gradings between adjacent layers [205] [357], facilitated by growth rates of 1-10 mm in these systems. A slow-changing compositional grading over a thickness of about 80 mm yielded a low-defect quaternary layer with a bandgap (w0.3 eV), which is otherwise unattainable with lattice-matched epitaxial layers.…”

“…Later work included SiC solution growth from chromium and titanium [524]. Mauk et al [205] investigated a number of solvents for SiC LPE, including Cu, Ga, Ga/Sn, Ni, and Zn-Al for lowtemperature (900-1200 C) SiC LPE, and where SiC growth from Zn/Al solvents was attributed to supersaturation induced by solvent evaporation. Yakimova et al [526] described SiC LPE from silicon-scandium solvents.…”

Vapor–liquid–solid growth of thick 2H–SiC layers under CH4 continuous flow

“…Solution growth is generally useful for obtaining highquality SiC single crystals, and some researchers have achieved high-quality 3C-, 4H-, and 6H-SiC single crystals from a Si-X-C ternary melt (X¼Al, Ti, Ge, etc.) [17][18][19][20][21][22].…”