Synthesis of SiC on Si by seeded supersonic beams of fullerenes

A well characterized C60 supersonic seeded beam has been used to synthesize SiC films on Si(111) 7×7. The control of beam parameters such as energy and flux distributions is shown to be important to improve quality of films in terms of morphology, defect density and structure. We demonstrate that a kinetic energy of a few eV of the C60 precursor is enough to induce carbidization at moderate substrate temperature. Kinetic energy activated SiC formation at 750 °C is achieved with a strong reduction of the dimensions and density of defects. The films show a reduced roughness of about 2.5 nm (root mean square)