Ultrasmooth reaction-sintered silicon carbide surface resulting from combination of thermal oxidation and ceria slurry polishing.

An ultrasmooth reaction-sintered silicon carbide surface with an rms roughness of 0.424 nm is obtained after thermal oxidation for 30 min followed by ceria slurry polishing for 30 min. By SEM-EDX analysis, we investigated the thermal oxidation behavior of RS-SiC, in which the main components are Si and SiC. As the oxidation rate is higher in the area with defects, there are no scratches or cracks on the surface after oxidation. However, a bumpy structure is formed after oxidation because the oxidation rates of Si and SiC differ. Through a theoretical analysis of thermal oxidation using the Deal-Grove model and the removal of the oxide layer by ceria slurry polishing in accordance with the Preston equation, a model for obtaining an ultrasmooth surface is proposed and the optimal processing conditions are presented.

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