Atomic arrangement at the 3C-SiC/Si(001) interface revealed utilising aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope

Abstract The atomistic structure of the 3C-SiC/Si(001) interface has been investigated using a combination of aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy and a newly developed image processing method for eliminating artificial contrast. The structures having periods four times longer than those of the silicon lattice have been observed distinctly in images taken along both Si[110] and Si[100] directions. Contrary to theoretical models proposed previously, the interface of the three-dimensional structural model that we constructed on the basis of our experiments has a silicon-rich configuration. We have clarified that the strain field induced by the two-dimensional misfit between Si(001)-(4 × 4) and SiC(001)-(5 × 5) is relaxed by the two-dimensional network of misfit dislocations; simple edge dislocations with [100] and [010] directions and Lomer dislocations with [110] and [110] directions. The atomistic structures of the Lomer dislocations have been also clarified. Keywords: transmission electron microscopyaberration correctionsilicon carbidesiliconinterface structuresmisfit dislocations Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge Dr. Y. Hirabayashi of the Kanagawa Industrial Technology Center for the growth of the SiC films on the Si substrates and Dr. K. Okazaki-Maeda of Osaka University for valuable discussions. The present study was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. 17201022 and No. 23760030) and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Program for Fostering Innovation (Global Type) "Tokai Region Nanotechnology Manufacturing Cluster".