Elongated shaped Si Island Formation on 3C-SiC by Chemical Vapor Deposition and Its Application to Antiphase Domain Observation

We have investigated the early stage of Si growth on 3C-SiC. We found that adsorbed Si atoms on a 3C-SiC surface form elongated islands 2-3 µm long and parallel to the <110 > direction. The formation of anisotropic islands can be explained by the anisotropic diffusion constant of Si adatoms on a 3C-SiC surface. We proposed a novel method to observe antiphase domains (APDs) using this characteristic of Si island growth on 3C-SiC.