Solvent design for high-purity SiC solution growth

In order to design a solvent for high-purity SiC solution growth, the impurity incorporation and the carbon solubility of various solvent materials have been investigated. Among the transition metal elements, the impurity elements of Cr, Ti, V and Hf are more readily incorporate during the solution growth than the other transition metal elements. The thermodynamic calculation revealed that the Y-Si solvent has relatively large carbon solubility, which is comparable to the Cr-Si and Ti-Si solvents often used in the solution growth of bulk SiC crystals. From these results, the Y-Si solvent is expected to be a suitable solvent for the high-purity SiC solution growth. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that the Y-Si solvent can achieve lower incorporation of metal impurity in the grown crystal than the Cr-Si solvent maintaining the growth rate.