Advances in the molecular-beam epitaxial growth of artificially layered heteropolytypic structures of SiC

The controlled growth of SiC heteropolytypic structures consisting of hexagonal and cubic polytypes has been performed by solid-source molecular-beam epitaxy. On on-axis substrates, 4H/3C/4H–SiC~0001! and 6H/3C/6H–SiC~0001! structures were obtained by first growing the 3C–SiC layer some nanometer thick at lower substrate temperatures (T51550 K) and Si-rich conditions and a subsequent growth of a-SiC on top of the 3C–SiC layer at higher T ~1600 K! under more C-rich conditions. On off-axis substrates, multiheterostructures consisting of 4H/3Cor 6H/ 3C-stacking sequences were also obtained by first nucleating selectively one-dimensional wire-like 3C–SiC on the terraces of well-prepared off-axis a-SiC~0001! substrates at low T(,1500 K). Next, SiC was grown further in a step-flow growth mode at higher T and Si-rich conditions. After the growth, many wire-like regions consisting of 3C–SiC were found also within the hexagonal layer material matrix indicating a simultaneous step-flow growth of both the cubic and the hexagonal SiC material. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. @S0003-6951~00!01039-1#