Effect of off-orientation of seed crystal on silicon carbide (SiC) single-crystal growth on the (11 $$\bar 2$$ 0) surface0) surface

Abstract

The effect of off-orientation growth has been investigated in terms of stacking fault formation during physical vapor transport (PVT) growth of silicon carbide (SiC) single crystals on the (11\(\bar 2\)0) seed crystal surface. Occurrence of stacking fault formation is largely dependent on the direction of off-orientation, and basal plane stacking fault density is significantly reduced by growing the crystals on a (11\(\bar 2\)0) seed crystal off-oriented toward 〈0001〉. The density of the basal plane stacking faults rapidly decreases from 100–150 cm−1 to ∼10 cm−1 as the degree of off-orientation is increased from 0 to 10 deg. The results are interpreted in the framework of microscopic facet formation during PVT growth, and the introduction of off-orientation of seed crystal is assumed to prevent (01\(\bar 1\)0) and (10\(\bar 1\)0) microfacet formation on the (11\(\bar 2\)0) growing surface through modification of the surface growth kinetics and to suppress the stacking fault formation.