Island Formation of SiC Film on Striated Si(001) Substrates

SiC growth on as-received and striated Si(001) substrates was studied. SiC films were grown by pulsed-jet chemical vapor deposition using monomethylsilane as a gas source at 780 degrees C. Two kinds of Si surfaces were prepared. One was an as-received Si(001) surface and the other was an striated (scratched) Si(001) surface. It was found that nucleation rate of SiC is quite different between these two kinds of surfaces. The film growth rate was very low for the as-received Si(001) surface compared with the striated surface, and after 8 hours of growth hardly any film was grown and only square-shaped islands were observed. On the other hand, for the undulant substrate about 100nm thick 3C-SiC film was grown after 8 hours of deposition. This film growth rate difference appears to be due to the difference in density of nucleation sites. For the as-received Si(001) surface, nucleation site density appears to be quite small due to the atomically flat surface. On the other hand, for the undulant surface, nucleation site density was large enough for the film to grow faster.