Structural and Morphological Investigation of Pendeo-Epitaxy 3C-SiC on Si Substrates

Successful pendeo-epitaxy growth of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) on off-axis Si(001) substrates was achieved. The structural and morphological characteristics of pendeo-epitaxy 3C-SiC were strongly affected by underlying stripes and seed layer thickness. Stripes perpendicular to the Si substrate off-axis provide about three times faster lateral growth rate compared with parallel oriented stripes. Root-mean-square (RMS) measurements using atomic force microscope (AFM) indicate that the surface morphology of Pendeo-epitaxy 3C-SiC films remarkably improves with increasing seed layer thickness: from 9.8 nm for 3 μm thickness to 0.5 nm for 10 μm thickness. These effects on pendeo-epitaxy 3C-SiC are discussed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and AFM investigation.