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 $\text{(T=1550\hspace{0.05em}}\mathrm{K})$ and Si-rich conditions and a subsequent growth of α-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/3C- or 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 α-SiC(0001) substrates at low $\text{T(<1500\hspace{0.05em}}\mathrm{K}\mathrm{).}$ 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.