title: Ab initio simulations of homoepitaxial SiC growth.
abstract: We present first-principle calculations on the initial stages of SiC homoepitaxial growth on the beta-SiC(111)-(sqrt[3]xsqrt[3]) surface. We show that the nonstoichiometric reconstruction plays a relevant role in favoring the attainment of high-quality films. The motivation is twofold: On one hand, we find that the reconstruction controls the kinetics of adatom incorporation; on the other hand, we observe that the energy gain upon surface stability can induce the reorganization of the deposited material into a crystalline structure, thus revealing that a surface-driven mechanism is able to stabilize defect-free layer deposition on Si-rich surfaces.
authors.affiliation: INFM-National Research Center on nanoStructures and bioSystems at Surfaces (S3), Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 213/A, 41100 Modena, Italy. mcrighi@unimore.it
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Righi
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Pignedoli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Felice
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bertoni
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Catellani