Carbonization of Si surfaces by solid source molecular beam epitaxy

The carbonization of Si(100) surfaces exposed to a sublimed carbon beam at low substrate temperatures in a molecular beam epitaxy system was studied. Different carbon sublimation rates and substrate temperatures were used. The films were analyzed using in situ (reflected high energy electron diffraction and Auger surface analysis) and ex-situ (scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform IR spectroscopy) methods. The results of the analysis showed that single-crystalline β-SiC can be grown by this technique. In addition, the Si-to-SiC conversion temperature limit was determined to be 600–650 °C, which is the lowest reported value, regardless of the growth method.