Simple and quick enhancement of SiC bulk crystal growth using a newly developed crucible material

Abstract

Newly developed highly reliable low-cost TaC-coated graphite materials prepared by a wet ceramic process were applied to SiC sublimation growth. We demonstrated an increased long-duration growth rate and a resultant increase in crystal size by a factor of ~1.2 (experimental value) after 24 h of growth [and ~1.5 (extrapolated value) after the optimum duration of 53.1 h] by simply and quickly replacing graphite crucibles with TaC-coated graphite crucibles. Growth with the TaC-coated graphite crucibles reduced source gas leakage and increased the material yield for single crystals because the TaC layers were gas-tight and had a low emissivity.