Synchrotron White Beam Topography Studies of Screw Dislocations in 6H-Sic Single Crystals

Synchrotron white beam X-ray topography, along with optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, has been used to characterize structural defects which are potentially detrimental to device performance in PVT 6H-SiC single crystals. Line defects running along the [0001] axis, known as “micropipes”, were studied extensively. Detailed analysis of topographic image contrast associated with “micropipes”, based on the kinematical theory of X-ray diffraction, established that the so-called “micropipes” are screw dislocations with large Burgers vectors.