Observation of polytype stability in different-impurities-doped 6H-SiC crystals

The Al-B co-doped 6H-SiC and heavily N-doped 6H-SiC crystals grown by physical vapor transport method were investigated in this paper, respectively. The XPS (x-ray photoelectron spectroscope). Raman spectra analysis and XRD (X-ray diffraction) were applied to characterize the obtained SiC crystals. When the co-doping level with a ratio of B:Al=0.22at.%:0.34at.% was obtained, Raman spectra results showed that there existed the 15R-polytype inclusion in the 6H-SiC crystal. When the co-doping ratio of B and Al increased to 1.18at.%:0.34at.%, there was only one polytype (6H) in the whole wafer. It can be speculated that the co-doping ratio of B:Al=1.18at.%:0.34at.% may stabilize the crystal structure during the 6H-SiC crystal growth process. But the real mechanism of the polytype stability is unclear. The role of Al or B or other impurities to influence polytype stability will be further investigated in the future work. Moreover, it has been found that a high nitrogen doping level can influence the polytype stability during the 6H-SiC crystal growth process. And especially, the 4H-polytype is preferred. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.