Investigation of V-shaped extended defects in a 4H–SiC epitaxial film

Abstract

We investigated two types of V-shaped extended defects on the basal plane in epitaxial 4H-SiC by synchrotron X-ray topography, photoluminescence imaging/spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). One is the (2, 5) stacking fault (in Zhdanov notation) bounded by two partial dislocations with the Burgers vector b ± 1/4[0 0 0 1]; the other is the (2, 3, 3, 5) stacking fault bounded by partial dislocations with b = ±1/4[0 0 0 1]. The core of the partial dislocations associated with the (2, 3, 3, 5) fault has an out-of-plane component (Frank component) and three in-plane components (Shockley components); the three Shockley components are cancelled out in total. The electronic structures of the (2, 5) and (2, 3, 3, 5) stacking faults were further examined by photoluminescence spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. It is suggested that the (2, 5) and (2, 3, 3, 5) stacking faults both have an interband state at a similar energy level, although they differ structurally.

Keywords:

• 4H-SiC
• dislocation
• stacking fault
• X-ray topography
• transmission electron microscopy
• photoluminescence spectroscopy
• first-principles calculations