Heteroepitaxial growth of β'-SiC films on TiC substrates: Interface structures and defects

Thin epitaxial films of β-SiC were grown by CVD on (100), (111), and (112) TiC substrates. TEM observations of the resulting interfaces revealed that island nucleation prevailed in the early stages of deposition for all three substrate orientations. Films grown on (111) and (112) TiC were monocrystalline, while SiC films deposited on (100) substrates were polycrystalline and not epitaxial, a phenomenon attributed to the poor match of atomic positions in SiC and TiC on their respective (100) planes. The (111) interface was abrupt and atomically flat, while the (112) interface exhibited {111} facets and steps. Simulated images of the stable (111) interface were calculated based on several possible atomic configurations, and the atomic structure of the interface was deduced from comparisons between the simulated images and phase-contrast TEM images.