Extended defects in 3C-SiC: Stacking faults, threading partial dislocations, and inverted domain boundaries

M Zimbone and A Sarikov and C Bongiorno and A Marzegalli and V Scuderi and C Calabretta and L Miglio and F La Via, ACTA MATERIALIA, 213, 116915 (2021).

DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2021.116915

The presence of extended bi-dimensional defects is one of the key issues that hinder the use of wide band-gap materials hetero-epitaxially grown on silicon. In this work, we investigate, by STEM measurements and molecular dynamic simulations, the structure of two of the most important extended defect affecting the properties of cubic silicon carbide, 3C-SiC, hetero-epitaxially grown on (001) silicon substrates: (1) stacking faults (SFs) with their bounding threading dislocation arms, even along with unusual directions, and (2) inverted domain boundaries (IDBs). We found that these two defects are strictly correlated: IDBs lying in 111 planes are intrinsically coupled to one or more SFs. Moreover, we observed that threading partial dislocations (PDs), limiting the SFs, appear to have non-conventional line directions, such as 112, 123, and 134. Molecular dynamics simulations show that 110 and 112 directions allow for stable dislocation structures, while in the unusual 123 and 134 directions, the PDs are composed of zig-zag dislocation lines in the 112 and 110 directions. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc.

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