Circular polariscopic analysis of strains in a semi-insulating SiC wafer: Its high potential to complement the information obtained from monochromatic x-ray topography.

We demonstrate that circular polariscopy is highly sensitive to strains in SiC wafers. In the monochromatic x-ray topographic analysis, which is regarded as a fundamental characterization method, the image information is disappeared in various areas: x-ray topography is not always suitable to evaluate wafer-size regions. Using circular polarizer plates, we apply the polariscopic analysis, which reveals the inhomogeneous strain distributed in the whole wafer region; namely, the circular polariscopic map has the high potential to complement the conventional monochromatic x-ray topograph. From the phonon-frequency shift observed in the Raman scattering spectra, the maximum stress is estimated to be ∼490 MPa. The crystal-plane distortion causing the strains is confirmed from the appearance of the forbidden reflections in the θ-2θ x-ray diffraction pattern.