Synthesis of epitaxial silicon carbide films through the substitution of atoms in the silicon crystal lattice: A review

Abstract

A review of recent advances in the field of epitaxial growth of SiC films on Si by means of a new method of epitaxial substitution of film atoms for substrate atoms has been presented. The basic statements of the theory of the new method used for synthesizing SiC on Si have been considered and extensive experimental data have been reported. The elastic energy relaxation mechanism implemented during the growth of epitaxial SiC films on Si by means of the new method of substitution of atoms has been described. This method consists in substituting a part of carbon atoms for silicon matrix atoms with the formation of silicon carbide molecules. It has been found experimentally that the substitution for matrix atoms occurs gradually without destroying the crystalline structure of the matrix. The orientation of the film is determined by the “old” crystalline structure of the initial silicon matrix rather than by the silicon substrate surface only, as is the case where conventional methods are used for growing the films. The new growth method has been compared with the classical mechanisms of thin film growth. The structure and composition of the grown SiC layers have been described in detail. A new mechanism of first-order phase transformations in solids with a chemical reaction through an intermediate state promoting the formation of a new-phase nuclei has been discussed. The mechanism providing the occurrence of a wide class of heterogeneous chemical reactions between the gas phase and a solid has been elucidated using the example of the chemical interaction of the CO gas with the single-crystal Si matrix. It has been shown that this mechanism makes it possible to grow a new type of templates, i.e., substrates with buffer transition layers for growing wide-band-gap semiconductor films on silicon. A number of heteroepitaxial films of wide-band-gap semiconductors, such as SiC, AlN, GaN, and AlGaN on silicon, whose quality is sufficient for the fabrication of a wide class of micro- and optoelectronic devices, have been grown on the SiC/Si substrate grown by solid-phase epitaxy.