Abstract
We report a new method for growing hexagonal columnar nanograin structured silicon carbide (SiC) thin films on silicon substrates by using graphene–graphitic carbon nanoflakes (GGNs) templates from solid carbon sources. The growth was carried out in a conventional low pressure chemical vapor deposition system (LPCVD). The GGNs are small plates with lateral sizes of around 100 nm and overlap each other, and are made up of nanosized multilayer graphene and graphitic carbon matrix (GCM). Long and straight SiC nanograins with hexagonal shapes, and with lateral sizes of around 200–400 nm are synthesized on the GGNs, which form compact SiC thin films.
Highlights
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a kind of wideband semiconductor material and has numerous excellent properties, including high electron mobility, high breakdown voltage and high temperature endurance [1,2], which make silicon carbide (SiC) one of the most attractive electronic materials nowadays because of its potential applications in high power, high temperature electronics [3]
We have demonstrated the growth of SiC thin films with hexagonal columnar nanograin microstructures on Si substrates by using graphene–graphitic carbon nanoflake templates
TEM images and Raman spectra reveal that the carbon templates consist of nanosized multilayer graphenes which are embedded in the graphitic carbon matrix
Summary
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a kind of wideband semiconductor material and has numerous excellent properties, including high electron mobility, high breakdown voltage and high temperature endurance [1,2], which make SiC one of the most attractive electronic materials nowadays because of its potential applications in high power, high temperature electronics [3]. SiC is polytypic; cubic SiC (3C-SiC) and hexagonal SiC (4H-SiC, 6H-SiC) are the most common materials among its polytypes Both 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC materials are industrial mature and bulk crystals which can be mass produced by physical vapor transport method (PVT) above 2000 °C [4,5], and their corresponding homoepitaxial thin films of n-type and p-type can be grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [6,7]. Power devices based on these hexagonal SiC polytypes have already been commercialized [8,9]. Applications based on homoepitaxial hexagonal SiC still suffer from the high process cost issue due to the high energy consumption and the low yield of the PVT. Carrier mobility of 3C-SiC is higher than that of hexagonal SiC, the bandgap of cubic SiC is smaller than that of hexagonal SiC [12]
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