Solution Growth of Silicon Carbide Using Fe–Si Solvent

In this paper, we describe the use of liquid Fe–Si alloy as the solvent for the solution growth of silicon carbide (SiC). Iron was chosen owing to the high solubility of carbon in molten iron. The crystal growth of SiC from Fe–40 mol % Si solvent on a seed crystal wafer of 6H- or 4H-SiC was carried out at 1,623–1,723 K using induction heating. The growth rate of SiC was obtained to be 90–260 µm/h. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy revealed homo epitaxial growth on both 6H- and 4H-SiC under the experimental conditions used. Thus, the Fe–Si solvent was found to be effective for the rapid solution growth of SiC.