The recent advances in epitaxial SiC films' growth on Si are overviewed. The basic classical methods currently used for SiC films' growth are discussed and their advantages and disadvantages are explored. The basic idea and the theoretical background for a new method of the synthesis of epitaxial SiC films on Si are given. It will be shown that the new method is significantly different from the classical techniques of thin-film growth where the evaporation of the atoms onto the substrate surface is exploited.

The new method is based on the substitution of some atoms in the silicon matrix by the carbon atoms to form the molecules of silicon carbide. It will be shown that the following process of SiC nucleation happens gradually without destroying the crystalline structure of the silicon matrix, and the orientation of a grown film is imposed by the original crystalline structure of the silicon matrix (not only by the substrate surface as in conventional methods of film growth). A comparison of the new method with other epitaxy techniques will be given.

The new method of solid-phase epitaxy based on the substitution of atoms and on the creation of dilatation dipoles solves one of the major problems in heteroepitaxy. It provides the synthesis of low-defective unstrained epitaxial films with a large difference between the lattice parameters of the film and the substrate without using any additional buffer layers. This method has another unique feature distinguishing it from the classical techniques of SiC films' growth—it allows the growing of SiC films of hexagonal polytypes. A new kind of phase transformation in solids owing to the chemical transformation of one substance into another will be described theoretically and revealed experimentally.

This type of phase transformation, and the mechanism of a broad class of heterogeneous chemical reactions between gas and solid phases, will be illustrated by an example of the growth of SiC epitaxial layers due to the chemical interaction of CO gas with the monocrystalline silicon matrix. The discovery of this mechanism yields a new kind of template: namely, substrates with buffer transition layers for wide-gap semiconductor growth on silicon. The properties of a variety of heteroepitaxial films of wide-gap semiconductors (SiC, AlN, GaN and AlGaN) grown on a SiC/Si substrate by solid-phase epitaxy will be reported. Grown films contain no cracks and have a quality sufficient to manufacture micro- and opto-electronic devices. Also, the new abilities in the synthesis of large (150 mm diameter) low-defective SiC films on Si substrates will be demonstrated.

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