Growth of SiC using hexamethyldisilane in a hydrogen-poor ambient

Growth of cubic SiC has been carried out on Si(111), Si(100), and SiC(0001) substrates using chemical vapor deposition at atmospheric pressure. Hexamethyldisilane (HMDS) was used as the only precursor and pure Ar or a nonflammable mixture of Ar and H2 was used as the carrier gas. The crystallinity was characterized by x-ray diffraction, reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that polycrystalline layers were obtained at low growth temperatures and with pure Ar as the carrier gas, while the crystallinity improved at temperatures above 1300 °C and when H2 was added. Under optimum growth conditions most of the grains are oriented with parallel epitaxy or with twinned epitaxy with respect to an (111) substrate. A Si/SiC heterodiode was also grown and it shows a breakdown voltage of more than 100 V.