Orientation dependent growth of SiC nanocrystals at the SiO2/Si interface

Cubic SiC nanocrystals are formed epitaxially and void-free on single crystal Si substrate by reactive annealing in CO. In this study characterization of the nucleation, growth and morphology is presented on differently oriented single crystal Si substrates. It is found that SiC nanocrystals of various shape can be grown in different densities on the (100), (110) and (111) Si surfaces with an average size of 30-60 nm. Effect of annealing time, CO concentration, substrate orientation and crystal size on crystallite growth is discussed. Parameters to obtain increased SiC nucleation density are determined.