Common issues in the hetero-epitaxial seeding on SiC substrates in the sublimation growth of AlN crystals

Aluminium nitride (AlN) is a futuristic material for efficient next-generation high-power electronic and optoelectronic applications. Sublimation growth of AlN single crystals with hetero-epitaxial approach using silicon carbide substrates is one of the two prominent approaches emerged, since the pioneering crystal growth work from 1970s. Many groups working on this hetero-epitaxial seeding have abandoned AlN growth altogether due to lot of persistently encountered problems. In this article, we focus on most of the common problems encountered in this process such as macro- and micro-hole defects, cracks, 3D-nucleation, high dislocation density, and incorporation of unintentional impurity elements due to chemical decomposition of the substrate at very high temperatures. Possible ways to successfully solve some of these issues have been discussed. Other few remaining challenges, namely low-angle grain boundaries and deep UV optical absorption, are also presented in the later part of this work. Particular attention has been devoted in this work on the coloration of the crystals with respect to chemical composition. Wet chemical etching gives etch pit density (EPD) values in the order of 105 cm-2 for yellow-coloured samples, while greenish coloration deteriorates the structural properties with EPD values of at least one order more.

Study on morphology of dislocation-related etch pits on pyramidal faces of KDP crystal

The generation of etch pit with clearly morphology is an important prerequisite to study dislocation structure. The mixture of water and ethanol is used to etch pyramidal faces of rapid...

Nanoscale morphological evolution of monocrystalline Pt surfaces during cathodic corrosion

This paper studies the cathodic corrosion of a spherical single crystal of platinum in an aqueous alkaline electrolyte, to map out the detailed facet dependence of the corrosion structures forming during this still largely unexplored electrochemical phenomenon. We find that anisotropic corrosion of the platinum electrode takes place in different stages. Initially, corrosion etch pits are formed, which reflect the local symmetry of the surface: square pits on (100) facets, triangular pits on (111) facets, and rectangular pits on (110) facets. We hypothesize that these etch pits are formed through a ternary metal hydride corrosion intermediate. In contrast to anodic corrosion, the (111) facet corrodes the fastest, and the (110) facet corrodes the slowest. For cathodic corrosion on the (100) facet and on higher-index surfaces close to the (100) plane, the etch pit destabilizes in a second growth stage, by etching faster in the (111) direction, leading to arms in the etch pit, yielding a concave octagon-shaped pit. In a third growth stage, these arms develop side arms, leading to a structure that strongly resembles a self-similar diffusion-limited growth pattern, with strongly preferred growth directions.

Origin of Large Bumps Abnormally Grown on 4H-SiC Epitaxial Film by Adding HCl Gas with High Cl/Si Ratio in CVD Process

4H-SiC homo-epitaxial film was grown by adding HCl gas with a high Cl/Si ratio in CVD process, and defect formation and origin of the defect were investigated by confocal differential interference contrast (CDIC) microscope, PL imaging and normal differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope. It was found that a large number of large bumps are formed on the film grown at a high Cl/Si ratio of 30, and a large number of PL defects on bare substrate before the film growth are also observed. Coordinates where the bumps on the film are observed were good agreement with those where the PL defects on the bare substrate are observed. An etch pit sample on reproduced substrate from which epitaxial film was removed was fabricated by etching process using molten KOH+Na2O2, and some types of etch pits which might be originated from threading edge dislocations (TEDs), threading screw dislocations (TSDs) and basal plane dislocations (BPDs) in the substrate were observed. The coordinates where the etch pits on the reproduced substrate are observed were also good agreement with those where the bumps on the epitaxial film are observed. Therefore, it was clarified that a large number of the bumps abnormally grown on the epitaxial film are originated from the dislocations in the substrate.

AFM Observation of Etch-Pit Shapes on β-Ga2O3 (001) Surface Formed by Molten Alkali Etching

In order to understand the crystal defects of beta-gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) in more detail, we classified the crystal defects of a 2-inch substrate of β-Ga2O3 (001) single crystal. As a result of observing the etch pits formed by molten alkali etching using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM), we succeeded in observing six different etch pit shapes. These etch pit shapes are categorized into “Cicada I type”, “Cicada II type”, “Cannonball type”, “Trapezoid type”, “Bar type”, and “Shell type”. We consider that “Cicada I type” and “Cicada II type” are etch pit shapes caused by planar defects, and “Cannon ball type” is etch pit shapes due to dislocations. In addition, “Trapezoid type”, “Bar type”, and “Shell type” are deduced the result of surface morphology.

Etch pit distribution on calcite cleavage surfaces – experiments and simulation

<p>During the dissolution at a calcite cleavage face, etch pits open around defects. Atomic steps moving outwards from these pit centres are currently considered the general driving mechanism of this dissolution process that results in heterogeneous material flux from the surface. This means that the defects that generate the etch pits are crucial for the surface evolution. Recent kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulation results indicate that not only the density but also the spatial distribution of defects is critical for the influence on dissolution.</p><p>In kMC simulations used for crystal dissolution, defect positions are input and can be defined in various ways, e.g., at pre-defined coordinates or randomly drawn from a distribution. The user is free in defining the defects, although it can generally be considered reasonable to choose defect densities and distributions as close as possible to what is expected to occur in nature and technical systems.</p><p>The actual spatial distribution of screw dislocations in calcite and their influence on rate variability are still not entirely known. To make the calcite kMC simulations comparable with experimental results, we experimentally determined the etch pit distributions, analyzed them and subsequently used them as input for further kMC studies.</p><p>While the direct measurement of defects in the crystal structure is extremely difficult, the indirect approach of measuring etch pits that have formed around defect outcrops during the beginning of dissolution is more feasible. For this, cleaved calcite single crystals were etched using ultra-pure water for 3 to 4 hours to obtain a significant amount of etch pits on the surface. The topography of the crystal surfaces was analysed using Vertical Scanning Interferometry (VSI). The resulting topography maps were stitched to gain a larger area for better statistics, and the centres of visible etch pits marked. This generates two-dimensional point patterns that describe the actual defect distribution more accurately than purely randomly generated coordinates without further constraints.</p><p>Based on data analysis of the experiments, we will show the resulting point distributions and synthetic patterns with similar underlying statistics. Using these as input for modelling, we then calculate kMC simulations and geometrical models of a system close to the calcite single crystal from our experiment, and compare them also to simulations using different defect positions as input.</p>