Preparation of crystalline SiC coating from Si and C powder mixture using laser sublimation technique

Abstract

A crystalline SiC coating was prepared by laser sublimation deposition from a powder mixture of Si and C as source materials under an Ar atmosphere at slightly reduced pressure (1 × 10⁴ Pa). A continuous-wave fiber laser (λ = 1070 nm) was used to irradiate the Si + C source pellets through a 4H-SiC wafer substrate in order to heat and react the powder mixture of Si and C, and to then sublimate the formed SiC. A (111) oriented dense columnar 3C-SiC coating layer, free from unreacted Si and C, was formed at a deposition rate of 30 µm/min.