Studies of epitaxial graphene and silicon growth on silicon carbide under silane gas

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have drawn much attention because of their superior and unique properties. Undoubtedly, the most well-known 2D material is graphene, an atomic-thick sheet of carbon in a honeycomb lattice. Up to date, many synthesized techniques were discovered; however, epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide (SiC) is still one of the most promising methods to produce high-quality graphene on semiconductor substrates. This thesis focuses on studying the epitaxial silicon/graphene growth on SiC under silane/argon gas mixtures using the confinement controlled sublimation technique. The morphology and layer coverage of the silicon/graphene thin films are characterized in-situ by LEED and Auger spectroscopy and ex-situ by AFM, SEM, and STM. Prior to the graphitization temperature, silicon deposits on SiC surface to grow thin film layers. On the Si-face, LEED images reveal several new reconstructions which have not reported elsewhere. At graphitization temperature, step bunching forms on vicinal silicon carbide with a power law relation between the average bunch size and the local angle. The formation and evolution of step bunching are compared with numerical solutions of the theory of Burton, Cabera, and Frank (BCF).