Carburisation layers for the growth of silicon carbide on silicon

This work describes the growth of 3C-SiC on silicon by vapour phase epitaxy. The carburisation, a key step to nucleating SiC on silicon is treated in detail. The carburisation layer, characterised by X ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy, was found to be smooth, epitaxial and monocrystalline on the substrate. Chemical analysis by XPS shows that the layer is Si rich and that residues of the precursors remain on the surface.