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The Manipulation and Alignment of Silicon Carbide Whiskers for Gallium Nitride Epitaxial Growth
Author(s) -
Shen Huaxiang,
Li Bo,
Yu Luke HaoLing,
Kitai Adrian
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.13090
Subject(s) - whiskers , materials science , scanning electron microscope , sintering , whisker , silicon carbide , monocrystalline whisker , substrate (aquarium) , gallium nitride , epitaxy , sputtering , thin film , composite material , nanotechnology , layer (electronics) , oceanography , geology
As a substrate candidate for low‐cost III ‐nitride thin film growth, 3 C – SiC whiskers are employed and manipulated in this work. The alignment of the whiskers is achieved on a patterned 3M Vikuiti ™ Brightness Enhancement Film surface. The degree of whisker alignment using this approach is higher than the whiskers lined up by extrusion methods according to X ‐ray diffraction ( XRD ) analysis. The aligned whiskers are transferred from the 3M film and embedded into an alumina matrix by tape casting. A self‐regulating sintering technique for SiC whiskers is used to protect the whiskers from being oxidized in air during sintering at 1600°C. The aligned whiskers are rigidly embedded in the alumina matrix as shown in scanning electron microscopy ( SEM ) images and energy‐dispersive X ‐ray spectrometry energy mapping images. GaN thin films grown by a low‐cost sputtering process on Alumina/ SiC as well as Si and SiC as reference materials are characterized by XRD and SEM .