Sublimation growth of thick freestanding 3C-SiC using CVD-templates on silicon as seeds

Cubic silicon carbide is a promising material for medium power electronics operating at high frequencies and for the subsequent growth of gallium nitride for more efficient light emitting diodes. We present a new approach to produce freestanding cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) with the ability to obtain good crystalline quality regarding increased domain size and reduced defect density. This would pave the way to achieve substrates of 3C-SiC so that the applications of cubic silicon carbide material having selectively (111) or (001) oriented surfaces can be explored. Our method is based on the combination of the chemical vapor deposition method and the fast sublimation growth process. Thin layers of cubic silicon carbide grown heteroepitaxially on silicon substrates are for the first time used for a subsequent sublimation growth step to increase layer thicknesses. We have been able to realize growth of freestanding (001) oriented 3C-SiC substrates using growth rates around 120 mu m/h and diameters of more than 10 mm. The structural quality from XRD rocking curve measurements of (001) oriented layers shows good FWHM values down to 78 arcsec measured over an area of 1 x 2 mm(2), which is a quality improvement of 2-3 times compared with other methods like CVD. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.