High mobility β-SiC epilayer prepared by low-pressure rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition on a (100) silicon substrate

The mobility of β-SiC thin films grown on (100) Si substrates by low-pressure rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (LP-RTCVD) has been found to have a 200% improvement over that prepared by conventional low-pressure CVD. The SiC growth is achieved using a C 3 H 8 -SiH 4 -H 2 reaction gas system at a reduced pressure of 2.5 Torr. Both X-ray and transmission electron microscopy patterns show that the grown layer is single-crystal β-SiC. The influence of the growth conditions on the electrical properties of the SiC layer was also investigated. It was found that the maximum electron mobility can reach 254 cm 2 V −1 s −1 for carrier concentrations of (1–4) × 10 17 cm −3 and at substrate temperature of 1 150 °C. The electron mobility is the highest one reported to date for the low-pressure heteroepitaxial SiC films on Si substrates.