Aluminum nitride-silicon carbide solid solutions grown by plasma-assisted, gas-source molecular beam epitaxy

Solid solutions of aluminum nitride (AlN) and silicon carbide (SiC) have been grown at 900{endash}1300thinsp{degree}C on vicinal {alpha}(6H)-SiC(0001) substrates by plasma-assisted, gas-source molecular beam epitaxy. Under specific processing conditions, films of (AlN){sub x}(SiC){sub 1{minus}x} with 0.2{le}x{le}0.8, as determined by Auger electron spectrometry (AES), were deposited. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) was used to determine the crystalline quality, surface character, and epilayer polytype. Analysis of the resulting surfaces was also performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) revealed that monocrystalline films with x{ge}0.25 had the wurtzite (2H) crystal structure; however, films with x{lt}0.25 had the zincblende (3C) crystal structure. {copyright} {ital 1998 Materials Research Society.}