Microstructure characterization of defects in cubic silicon carbide using transmission electron microscopy.

Microstructures of 3C-SiC grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique on undulant silicon substrate and a further developed technique called switch-back epitaxy (SBE) were studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In case of the CVD sample, the density of the stacking faults was found to be significantly decreasing along growth direction. Sites of collision of stacking faults were observed using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Some of the stacking faults were observed to have disappeared after colliding into each other. The stacking faults were identified to be on the same type of plane and had the same type of displacement vector not only in CVD and SBE but also in the epitaxial layer on the SBE SiC samples.