Solution growth of high-quality 3C-SiC crystals

3C (cubic)-silicon carbide (SiC) bulk crystals that are stable at relatively low temperatures are difficult to grow by the sublimation method, which requires relatively high growth temperatures. This study focused on growth from the solution, which has the advantage that low growth temperatures are applied and the resulting crystals are mostly of high crystalline quality. Firstly, a large number of 3C-SiC crystals were grown by solution growth via spontaneous nucleation in a large temperature gradient. A relatively high yield of 6.4% was achieved from the charged Si solvent. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray topography observations indicated that the stacking fault density of these crystals was much lower than that of the substrates grown by chemical vapor deposition methods. A dipping solution technique was then applied for 3C-SiC growth, using 3C-SiC seed crystals grown via spontaneous nucleation. Growth was performed on the (1 1 1)Si or (1¯ 1¯ 1¯)C faces. As a result, 3C-SiC grew on the (1¯ 1¯ 1¯)C face, but 6H-SiC crystals grew on the (1 1 1)Si face. For the stable growth of 3C-SiC crystals without 6H-SiC precipitation, growth on the (1¯ 1¯ 1¯)C faces is necessary.