Kazuaki Sato

Trials of Solution Growth of Dislocation-Free 4H-SiC Bulk Crystals

Solution growth of high-quality 4H-SiC bulk crystals has been performed by using Si-Cr based melt at 2000°C. Through enlargement of crystal diameter which is controlled by meniscus height during growth, dislocation free area has been successfully obtained on the periphery of the crystal. However, the threading dislocations in the seed crystal have penetrated into the grown crystal and have been located around the center of the crystal. To reduce dislocation density in the grown crystals, we have used threading-dislocation-free seedcrystals prepared by solution growth on (1-100). The solution growth on the seed crystal sliced from the (1-100) crystal has resulted in very low dislocation density of grown crystals. In an area of 16 mm2 for the growth surface, no dislocation has been detected.

Dislocations in SiC Revealed by NaOH Vapor Etching and a Comparison with X-Ray Topography Taken with Various g-Vectors

Threading dislocations (TDs) in 4H-SiC have been studied by comparing etch pits formed by NaOH vapor etching with results of synchrotron monochromatic-beam X-ray topography (XRT) taken under different g-vectors. Burgers vectors determined based on XRT results were utilized to investigate the etch pit characteristics of edge (TED), screw (TSD) and mixed (Burgers vector b=c+a, TMD) threading dislocations. It has been found that pit formation by NaOH vapor etching was very different to that by conventional molten KOH etching. We discuss the possibility of using NaOH vapor etching to distinguish TMDs from TSDs, and report a variety of characteristic etch pits formed by this method and their correlations to dislocation behavior.

Solubility and diffusion of chromium in 4H-SiC

The solubility and diffusivity of Cr atoms in 4H-SiC epilayers are investigated. The formation energy of 4H-SiC containing Cr has been calculated by first-principles calculation. Si sites have been found to be more stable than C sites or interstitial sites for Cr atoms owing to the lower formation energy. The solubility estimated from the formation energy coincides with the saturated Cr concentration in SiC crystals grown by solution growth. The diffusivity of implanted Cr atoms (located at interstitial sites) was not affected by the charge states of Cr atoms and/or vacancies such as carbon vacancies and silicon vacancies, implying the interstitial diffusion of Cr atoms.