Synthesis of polycrystalline silicon carbide (SiC) thin films using pulsed laser deposition

Silicon carbide (SiC), similar to diamond and other ceramic materials, is a material with excellent functional properties. SiC films based devices can be used for various applications ranging from automobile, aerospace industry, power delivery systems, photovoltaic, and microelectromechanical systems. The growth of bulk single crystals of SiC is difficult, but several techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), electron beam CVD (EB-CVD), pulsed laser deposition (PLD), are used to produce SiC thin films for various functional applications. In the PLD technique, high substrate temperature (>600 °C) is required to produce crystalline SiC thin films and the onset of the large-scale crystallization has been detected above 800 °C. The PLD technique has been extended for SiC film deposition on various substrates, such as Si (100), alkali-free glass materials. A review on PLD of SiC thin film clearly show that it is possible to deposit 3C-SiC (b-SiC) and 4H-SiC (a-SiC) thin films by controlling various process parameters, such as laser fluence and substrate temperature. Recent advances in the PLD technique combined with the surface annealing can improve the characteristics of SiC thin films for photovoltaic and electronic device-related applications. © Springer India 2014.