Chemical and Morphological Analysis of 4H-SiC Surface Processed by Plasma Assisted Polishing

Hui Deng; Masaki Ueda; Kazuya Yamamura

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.516.186

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HomeKey Engineering MaterialsKey Engineering Materials Vol. 516Chemical and Morphological Analysis of 4H-SiC...

Chemical and Morphological Analysis of 4H-SiC Surface Processed by Plasma Assisted Polishing

Abstract:

A novel polishing technique combined with the irradiation of atmospheric pressure plasma known as plasma assisted polishing (PAP) is proposed for the finishing of difficult-to-machine materials. In this paper, we mainly focus on the case of 4H-SiC substrate. We used helium-based water vapour plasma to modify the mechanical and chemical properties of the SiC surface. The results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements indicate that the surface was efficiently oxidized after plasma irradiation, and the main product was silicon oxide. A small amount of silicon oxycarbide was also observed which was identified as the interface oxide. The result of a nanoindentation test revealed that the hardness of oxidized SiC surface decreased by one order of magnitude compared with the unprocessed surface. The decrease of hardness of modified surface enables us to flatten the surface without forming any scratches and subsurface damage by using soft abrasive compared with the base material. We used CeO₂ as the abrasive material in PAP, the hardness of which was near to that of the oxidized surface. The microscopic interferometer images of the PAP processed surface showed us that scratches disappeared and surface roughnesses also decreased from 4.410 nm p-v, 0.621 nm rms to 1.889 nm p-v, 0.280 nm rms. From the atomic force microscopy (AFM) images, a step and terrace structure was observed on the surface after PAP, which means that an atomically flat surface was obtained. We conducted reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) measurement to evaluate the residual strain of the PAP processed surface. The results indicate that the lattice constants approached the ideal value, which meansthat the PAP technique did not introduce crystallographical subsurface damage.

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Key Engineering Materials (Volume 516)

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186-191

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.516.186

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Online since:

June 2012

Authors:

Hui Deng, Masaki Ueda, Kazuya Yamamura

Keywords:

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma, Nanoindentation Hardness, Polishing, Roughness, Silicon Carbide (SiC), Subsurface Damage

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