Elimination of Voids at Interface of β-SiC Films and Si Substrate by Laser CVD

Abstract

Void-free β-SiC films were deposited on Si(001) substrates by laser chemical vapor deposition using hexamethyldisilane (HMDS) as the precursor. The effect of the time of introducing HMDS, i e, the substrate temperature when HMDS introduced (T _in), on the preferred orientation, surface microstructure and void was investigated. The orientation of the deposited SiC films changed from <001> to random to <111> with increasing T _in. The surface showed a layer-by-layer microstructure with voids above T _in ⩾ 773 K, and then transformed into mosaic structure without voids at T _in= 298 K. The mechanism of the elimination of voids was discussed. At T _in =298 K, Si surface can be covered by an ultrathin SiC film, which inhibits the out-diffusion of Si atoms from substrate and prohibites the formation of the voids.

Keywords

voids / HMDS / β-SiC / laser CVD

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