Correspondence between Surface Morphological Faults and Crystallographic Defects in 4H–SiC Homoepitaxial Film

Abstract

Conventional transmission electron microscopy was applied to study the nature of crystallographic defects under some types of surface morphological faults formed on a 4H–SiC film homoepitaxially grown on a (0001) off-cut substrate. "Wavy pit" faults consist of arrays of small surface cavities and half-loops of perfect dislocations expanding towards the direction of their Burgers vector. "Carrot" and "comet" faults are accompanied by stacking faults. The geometry of crystallographic defects under surface faults is closely related to the off-cut direction of the substrate. Formation mechanisms of surface faults are discussed.