Epitaxial growth and electrical performance of graphene/3C-SiC films by laser CVD

High electrical conductivity graphene/epitaxial-3C-SiC (G/epi-3C-SiC) composite films have the potential to the applications such as micro-electro-mechanical systems, distributed Bragg reflectors, solar cells, and photocatalysis in harsh environments. In this study, G/epi-3C-SiC composite films were prepared through laser chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) using hexametyldisilane (HMDS) as a safe single precursor. The electrical conductivity (sigma) of the composite films reached 2.23 x 10(4) S/m, which is 2.2 times of the highest sigma reported for G/epi-3C-SiC composite. The deposition rate (R-dep) of the composite film with the highest sigma is 8.2 times of that of the G/epi-3C-SiC with the highest sigma ever reported sigma of the pure epitaxial 3C-SiC film is only 81.2 S/m, which is the lowest value reported to date of 3C-SiC prepared through CVD using HMDS as a single precursor. Elimination of carbon is beneficial for increasing the breakdown field intensity and decreasing the leakage current of heterojunction when epitaxial 3C-SiC is used as semiconductor material. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.