Especially substrates of the 3C polytype promise good quality, single crystalline GaN films~\cite{takeuchi91,yamamoto04,ito04}.
The focus of SiC based applications, however, is in the area of solid state electronics experiencing revolutionary performance improvements enabled by its capabilities.
-These devices include ultraviolet (UV) detectors, high power radio frequency (RF) amplifiers, rectifiers and switching transistors as well as MEMS applications.
+These devices include ultraviolet (UV) detectors, high power radio frequency (RF) amplifiers, rectifiers and switching transistors as well as \ac{MEMS} applications.
For UV dtectors the wide band gap is useful for realizing low photodiode dark currents as well as sensors that are blind to undesired near-infrared wavelenghts produced by heat and solar radiation.
These photodiodes serve as excellent sensors applicable in the monitoring and control of turbine engine combustion.
The low dark currents enable the use in X-ray, heavy ion and neutron detection in nuclear reactor monitoring and enhanced scientific studies of high-energy particle collisions as well as cosmic radiation.
The high breakdown field of SiC compared to Si allows the blocking voltage region of a device to be designed roughly 10 times thinner and 10 times heavier doped, resulting in a decrease of the blocking region resistance by a factor of 100 and a much faster switching behavior.
Thus, rectifier diodes and switching transistors with higher switching frequencies and much greater efficiencies can be realized and exploited in highly efficient power converters.
Therefor, SiC constitutes a promising candidate to become the key technology towards an extensive development and use of regenerative energies and elctromobility.
-Beside the mentioned electrical capabilities the mechanical stability, which is almost as hard as diamond, and chemical inertness almost suggest SiC to be used in MEMS designs.
+Beside the mentioned electrical capabilities the mechanical stability, which is almost as hard as diamond, and chemical inertness almost suggest SiC to be used in \ac{MEMS} designs.
Among the different polytypes of SiC, the cubic phase shows a high electron mobility and the highest break down field as well as saturation drift velocity.
In contrast to its hexagonal counterparts 3C-SiC exhibits isotropic mechanical and electronic properties.
High process temperatures are necessary and the evaporation of Si must be suppressed by a high-pressure inert atmosphere.
Crystals grown by this method are not adequate for practical applications with respect to their size as well as quality and purity.
The presented methods, thus, focus on vapor transport growth processes such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and the sublimation technique.
+Excellent reviews of SiC formation have been published by Wesch \cite{wesch96} and Davis~et~al. \cite{davis91}.
\subsection{SiC bulk crystal growth}
\subsection{SiC epitaxial thin film growth}
Crystalline SiC layers have been grown by a large number of techniques on the surfaces of different substrates.
-Most of the crystal growth processes are based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD), solid-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and gas-source MBE on Si as well as SiC substrates, which will be exclusively reviewed in the following.
+Most of the crystal growth processes are based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD), solid-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and gas-source MBE (GSMBE) on Si as well as SiC substrates.
+In CVD as well as gas-source MBE, C and Si atoms are supplied by C containing gases like CH$_4$, C$_3$H$_8$, C$_2$H$_2$ or C$_2$H$_4$ and Si containing gases like SiH$_4$, Si$_2$H$_6$, SiH$_2$Cl$_2$, SiHCl$_3$ or SiCl$_4$ respectively.
+In the case of solid-source MBE atoms are provided by electron beam evaporation of graphite and solid Si or thermal evaporation of fullerenes.
+The following review will exclusively focus on CVD and MBE techniques.
The availability and reproducibility of Si substrates of controlled purity made it the first choice for SiC epitaxy.
The heteroepitaxial growth of SiC on Si substrates has been stimulated for a long time due to the lack of suitable large substrates that could be adopted for homoepitaxial growth.
Furthermore, heteroepitaxy on Si substrates enables the fabrication of the advantageous 3C polytype, which constitutes a metastable phase and, thus, can be grown as a bulk crystal only with small sizes of a few mm.
-
-
-\section{Ion beam synthesis of cubic silicon carbide}
+The main difficulties in SiC heteroepitaxy on Si is due to the lattice mismatch of Si and SiC and the difference in the thermal expansion coefficient of \unit[8]{\%}.
+Thus, in most of the applied CVD and MBE processes, the SiC layer formation process is split into two steps, the surface carbonization and the growth step, as proposed by Nishino~et~al. \cite{nishino83}.
+Cleaning of the substrate surface with HCl is required prior to carbonization.
+During carbonization the Si surface is chemically converted into a SiC film with a thickness of a few nm by exposing it to a flux of C atoms and concurrent heating up to temperatures about \unit[1400]{$^{\circ}$C}.
+In a next step, the epitaxial deposition of SiC is realized by an additional supply of Si atoms at similar temperatures.
+Low defect densities in the buffer layer are a prerequisite for obtaining good quality SiC layers during growth, although defect densities decrease with increasing distance of the SiC/Si interface \cite{shibahara86}.
+Next to surface morphology defects such as pits and islands, the main defects in 3C-SiC heteroepitaxial layers are twins, stacking faults (SF) and antiphase boundaries (APB) \cite{shibahara86,pirouz87}.
+APB defects, which constitute the primary residual defects in thick layers, are formed near surface terraces that differ in a single-atom-height step resulting in domains of SiC separated by a boundary, which consists of either Si-Si or C-C bonds due to missing or disturbed sublattice information \cite{desjardins96,kitabatake97}.
+However, the number of such defects can be reduced by off-axis growth on a Si \hkl(0 0 1) substrate miscut towards \hkl[1 1 0] by \unit[2]{$^{\circ}$}-\unit[4]{$^{\circ}$} \cite{shibahara86,powell87_2}.
+This results in the thermodynamically favored growth of a single phase due to the uni-directional contraction of Si-C-Si bond chains perpendicular to the terrace steps edges during carbonization and the fast growth parallel to the terrace edges during growth under Si rich conditions \cite{kitabatake97}.
+By MBE, lower process temperatures than these typically employed in CVD have been realized \cite{hatayama95,henke95,fuyuki97,takaoka98}, which is essential for limiting thermal stresses and to avoid resulting substrate bending, a key issue in obtaining large area 3C-SiC surfaces.
+In summary, the almost universal use of Si has allowed significant progress in the understanding of heteroepitaxial growth of SiC on Si.
+However, mismatches in the thermal expansion coefficient and the lattice parameter cause a considerably high concentration of various defects, which is responsible for structural and electrical qualities that are not yet statisfactory.
+
+The alternative attempt to grow SiC on SiC substrates has shown to drastically reduce the concentration of defects in deposited layers.
+By CVD, both, the 3C \cite{kong88,powell90} as well as the 6H \cite{kong88_2,powell90_2} polytype could be successfully grown.
+In order to obtain the homoepitaxially grown 6H polytype, off-axis 6H-SiC wafers are required as a substrate \cite{kimoto93}.
+%In the so called step-controlled epitaxy, lateral growth proceeds from atomic steps without the necessity of preceding nucleation events.
+Investigations indicate that in the so-called step-controlled epitaxy, crystal growth proceeds through the adsorbtion of Si species at atomic steps and their carbonization by hydrocarbon molecules.
+This growth mechanism does not require two-dimensional nucleation.
+Instead, crystal growth is governed by mass transport, i.e. the diffusion of reactants in a stagnant layer.
+In contrast, layers of the 3C polytype are formed on exactly oriented \hkl(0 0 0 1) 6H-SiC substrates by two-dimensional nucleation on terraces.
+These films show a high density of double positioning boundary (DPB) defects, which is a special type of twin boundary arising at the interface of regions that occupy one of the two possible orientations of the hexagonal stacking sequence, which are rotated by \unit[60]{$^{\circ}$} relative to each other, respectively.
+However, lateral 3C-SiC growth was also observed on low tilt angle off-axis substrates originating from intentionally induced dislocations \cite{powell91}.
+Additionally, 6H-SiC was observed on clean substrates even for a tilt angle as low as \unit[0.1]{$^{\circ}$} due to low surface mobilities that facilitate arriving molecules to reach surface steps.
+Thus, 3C nucleation is assumed as a result of migrating Si and C cointaining molecules interacting with surface disturbances by a yet unknown mechanism, in contrast to a model \cite{ueda90}, in which the competing 6H versus 3C growth depends on the density of surface steps.
+Combining the fact of a well defined 3C lateral growth direction, i.e. the tilt direction, and an intentionally induced dislocation enables the controlled growth of a 3C-SiC film mostly free of DPBs \cite{powell91}.
+
+Lower growth temperatures, a clean growth ambient, in situ control of the growth process, layer-by-layer deposition and the possibility to achieve dopant profiles within atomic dimensions due to the reduced diffusion at low growth temperatures reveal MBE as a promising technique to produce SiC epitaxial layers.
+Using alternating supply of the gas beams Si$_2$H$_6$ and C$_2$H$_2$ in GSMBE, 3C-SiC epilayers were obtained on 6H-SiC substrates at temperatures between \unit[850]{$^{\circ}$C} and \unit[1000]{$^{\circ}$C} \cite{yoshinobu92}.
+On \hkl(000-1) substrates twinned \hkl(-1-1-1) oriented 3C-SiC domains are observed, which suggest a nucleation driven rather than step-flow growth mechanism.
+On \hkl(0-11-4) substrates, however, single crystalline \hkl(001) oriented 3C-SiC grows with the c axes of substrate and film being equal.
+The beneficial epitaxial relation of substrate and film limits the structural difference between the two polytypes in two out of six layers with respect to the stacking sequence along the c axis.
+Homoepitaxial growth of 3C-SiC by GSMBE was realized for the first time by atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) utilizing the periodical change in the surface superstructure by the alternating supply of the source gases, which determines the growth rate giving atomic level control in the growth process \cite{fuyuki89}.
+The cleaned substrate surface shows a C terminated $(2\times 2)$ pattern at \unit[1000]{$^{\circ}$C}, which turns into a $(3\times 2)$ pattern when Si$_2$H$_6$ is introduced and it is maintained after the supply is stopped.
+A more detailed investigation showed the formation of a preceeding $(2\times 1)$ and $(5\times 2)$ pattern within the exposure to the Si containing gas \cite{yoshinobu90,fuyuki93}.
+The $(3\times 2)$ superstructure contains approximately 1.7 monolayers of Si atoms, crystallizing into 3C-SiC with a smooth and mirror-like surface after C$_2$H$_6$ is inserted accompanied by a reconstruction of the surface into the initial C terminated $(2\times 2)$ pattern.
+A minimal growth rate of 2.3 monolayers per cycle exceeding the value of 1.7 is due to physically adsorbed Si atoms not contributing to the superstructure.
+To realize single monolayer growth precise control of the gas supply to form the $(2\times 1)$ structure is required.
+However, accurate layer-by-layer growth is achieved under certain conditions, which facilitate the spontaneous desorption of an additional layer of one atom species by supply of the other species \cite{hara93}.
+Homoepitaxial growth of the 6H polytype has been realized on off-oriented substrates utilizing simultaneous supply of the source gases \cite{tanaka94}.
+Depending on the gas flow ratio either 3C island formation or step flow growth of the 6H polytype occurs, which is explained by a model including aspects of enhanced surface mobilities of adatoms on a $(3\times 3)$ reconstructed surface.
+Due to the strong adsorption of atomic hydrogen \cite{allendorf91} decomposited of the gas phase reactants at low temperatures, however, there seems to be no benefit of GSMBE compared to CVD.
+Next to lattice imperfections, incorporated hydrogen effects the surface mobility of the adsorbed species \cite{eaglesham93} setting a minimum limit for the growth temperature, which would preferably be further decreased in order to obtain sharp doping profiles.
+Thus, growth rates must be adjusted to be lower than the desorption rate of hydrogen, which leads to very low deposition rates at low temperatures.
+Solid source MBE (SSMBE), supplying the atomic species to be deposited by evaporation of a solid, presumably constitutes the preffered method in order to avoid the problems mentioned above.
+Although, in the first experiments, temperatures still above \unit[1100]{$^{\circ}$C} were necessary to epitaxially grow 3C-SiC films on 6H-SiC substrates \cite{kaneda87}, subsequent attempts succeeded in growing mixtures of twinned 3C-SiC and 6H-SiC films on off-axis \hkl(0001) 6H-SiC wafers at temperatures between \unit[800]{$^{\circ}$C} and \unit[1000]{$^{\circ}$C} \cite{fissel95,fissel95_apl}.
+In the latter approach, as in GSMBE, excess Si atoms, which are controlled by the Si/C flux ratio, result in the formation of a Si adlayer and the formation of a non-stoichiometric, reconstructed surface superstructure, which influences the mobility of adatoms and, thus, has a decisive influence on the growth mode, polytype and crystallinity \cite{fissel95,fissel96,righi03}.
+Therefore, carefully controlling the Si/C ratio could be exploited to obtain definite heterostructures of different SiC polytypes providing the possibility for band gap engineering in SiC materials.
+
+To summarize ... remaining obstacles are ... APB in 3C ... and micropipes in hexagonal SiC?
+
+\subsection{Ion beam synthesis of cubic silicon carbide}
\section{Substoichiometric concentrations of carbon in crystalline silicon}
-\section{Assumed precipitation mechanism of cubic silicon carbide in bulk silicon}
+\section{Assumed cubic silicon carbide conversion mechanisms}
\label{section:assumed_prec}
+on surface ... md contraction along 110 ... kitabatake ... and ref in lindner ... rheed from si to sic ...
+
+in ibs ... lindner and skorupa ...
+
+nejim however ...
+
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