Structure and Properties of Cubic Silicon Carbide (100) Surfaces: A Review

The many uses for SiC in electronics have been well documented [1 to 3]. Many of these applications, as well as the growth of the material itself, are critically dependent on the structural and electronic properties of surfaces and interfaces. From a basic perspective, SiC is unique in that it is a IV–IV compound semiconductor. As such it forms a “bridge” between the elemental column-IV materials Si and Ge and the III–V's GaN, GaAs, etc. These considerations have led to many experimental and theoretical studies of SiC surfaces, a significant fraction of which have appeared in the past few years.

This paper reviews recent experimental results for clean, ordered and well-characterized (100) surfaces. Cubic (111) surfaces are excluded since they are more properly discussed [4] together with those of hexagonal SiC(0001) and (0001-), to which they are essentially identical. There have, to date, been no experimental data reported for SiC(110) surfaces. Work up to about mid-1993 has already been briefly reviewed [5]. A discussion of metal/SiC interfaces was also given [5], but more recent work will be omitted. Mention is also made here of theoretical results, which are discussed extensively elsewhere [6].