Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
We present an experimental study of asymmetric wafer deformation for 3C-SiC layers grown on deliberately misorientated silicon substrates. An asymmetric curvature has been observed both on (100) and (111) oriented layers. In this work we focus on the (100) oriented samples. The curvature of the wafers is studied as a function of wafer thickness and offcut angle. We look for the correlations between the observed asymmetric strain relaxation and the layer morphology and microstructure. We claim that different defect pattern, measured along [110] and [1-10] direction can be at the origin of almost complete relaxation of mismatch strain along the offcut direction.