In this work, the successful heteroepitaxial growth of boron carbide (B x C) on 4HSiC(0001) 4{\textdegree} off substrate using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is reported. Towards this end, a two-step procedure was developed, involving the 4H-SiC substrate boridation under BCl 3 precursor at 1200{\textdegree}C, followed by conventional CVD under BCl 3 + C 3 H 8 at 1600{\textdegree}C. Such a procedure allowed obtaining reproducibly monocrystalline (0001) oriented films of B x C with a step flow morphology at a growth rate of 1.9 μm/h. Without the boridation step, the layers are systematically polycrystalline. The study of the epitaxial growth mechanism shows that a monocrystalline B x C layer is formed after boridation but covered with a B-and Si-containing amorphous layer. Upon heating up to 1600{\textdegree}C, under pure H 2 atmosphere, the amorphous layer was converted into epitaxial B x C and transient surface SiB x and Si crystallites. These crystallites disappear upon CVD growth.
@article{arxiv.2310.17221,
title = {Epitaxial Growth of Boron Carbide on 4H-SiC},
author = {Yamina Benamra and Laurent Auvray and Jérôme Andrieux and François Cauwet and Maria-Paz Alegre and Fernando Lloret and Daniel Araujo and Marina Gutierrez and Gabriel Ferro},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.17221},
year = {2023}
}