Abstract
The effects of solvent cleaning, hydrogen etching, and additional oxidation treatment of 4H-SiC off-axis surfaces were investigated. The morphology of the resulting surfaces was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the chemical composition was studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is confirmed that simple cleaning and hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching procedures do not yield smooth surfaces, although the surfaces show mainly SiC-like bonds. High-temperature hydrogen etching can effectively remove polishing scratches, leading to a very smooth morphology, but it leaves some residual graphitic-bound carbon behind. It is shown that a subsequent oxidation step not only removes residual graphite on the hydrogen-etched surface but also produces the same chemical composition on all treated surfaces.
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Wolan, J.T., Grayson, B.A., Kohlscheen, J. et al. Effect of hydrogen etching and subsequent sacrificial thermal oxidation on morphology and composition of 4H-SiC surfaces. J. Electron. Mater. 31, 380–383 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-002-0087-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-002-0087-6