Planarization of 4H-SiC(0001) by catalyst-referred etching using pure water etchant

Catalyst-referred etching (CARE) is a noble planarization method which does not require abrasives. In this paper, we applied CARE with pure water to a 4H-SiC substrate in order to evaluate the removal rate and the surface roughness of the processed surface. The removal rate for the 4H-SiC(0001) on-axis wafer was found to be 2 nm/h while, in the AFM images, step-terrace structures were clearly observed on the processed surface.