Selective epitaxial growth in buried patterns was studied using the vapour-liquid-solid mechanism in Al-Si melt in order to obtain p+-doped SiC localized layers on 4H-SiC substrate. Homogeneous deposition with step bunched morphology was obtained by adding propane at room temperature before growth at 1100°C. Patterns as large as 800 µm and as narrow as 10 µm were completely filled in this way. The deposition kinetics demonstrates that the process is self limited and mainly depends on the initial amount of Si in the liquid. The deposit is highly p-type doped and the p-n junction is demonstrated.

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In this work, the growth by Vapour-Liquid-Solid (VLS) mechanism of 3C-SiC on silicon substrate is reported. Firstly, a germanium layer is deposited on the substrate. Then the temperature of the sample is increased above Ge melting point in order to form a SiGe liquid phase by reaction with the substrate. Upon reaching the target temperature (1100-1300°C) the VLS growth starts with the injection of propane in the reactor. Both Raman spectrometry and X-Ray diffraction analyses evidenced the formation of 3C-SiC on every sample. However, this SiC deposit, a few micrometers thick, is always found to be polycrystalline though textured. In parallel, the presence of an epitaxial Si-Ge alloy, whose composition depends on the growth temperature, was systematically detected between Si and SiC.

The crystal growth of 3C-SiC onto silicon substrate by Vapour-Liquid-Solid (VLS) transport has been investigated. In the studied growth configuration, propane feeds a SiGe liquid phase contained in 10 µm-deep etched trenches on the Si substrate. Before SiGe deposition, the substrate surface and the trench walls were coated with a thin (100 - 200 nm) CVD-grown 3C-SiC seeding layer. For the VLS growth, the temperature was increased up to 1280°C, above the SiGe alloy melting point, at which point propane was added to start VLS growth. X-ray diffraction shows that some SiC is grown epitaxially onto the CVD seeding layer. However, cross-section SEM observations have evidenced that SiC has grown as trapezoidal islands and not as an uniform layer. Backscattered electron images also clearly show a deep penetration of germanium into the substrate through the SiC seeding layer. This penetration was found to be strongly reduced when increasing the seeding layer thickness from 100 to 200 nm.