Modeling-Based Design of the Control Pattern for Uniform Macrostep Morphology in Solution Growth of SiC

In the solution growth of the SiC crystal, macrosteps with sufficient height on an off-axis substrate are required to reduce defects and achieve a high-quality grown layer. However, over-developed macrosteps can induce new defects and adversely affect the crystal quality. To better understand and control the behavior of macrosteps corresponding to the control parameters of the growth system, a simulation method that consists of a global two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model, a local three-dimensional CFD model near the growth front, and a kinetics model that describes the movement of macrosteps on the crystal surface is proposed. The simulation method is first applied to investigate the effect of the crystal rotation speed on macrostep morphology. Although the results indicate that a higher crystal rotation speed results in less step bunching, constantly rotating the crystal in one direction is demonstrated to be incapable of yielding a uniform macrostep distribution on the whole surface. Accordingly, a sophisticated control pattern is designed by periodically switching the flow direction underneath the crystal surface, where the proposed simulation method is critical to determine detailed control-parameter values. When the control pattern suggested by the simulation is used, a grown crystal with a uniform macrostep morphology and ideal step height on the whole surface is obtained in the practical experiment.