*Article* **Effect of Nitrogen and Aluminum Doping on 3C-SiC Heteroepitaxial Layers Grown on 4**◦ **Off-Axis Si (100)**

**Cristiano Calabretta <sup>1</sup> , Viviana Scuderi 1,\*, Ruggero Anzalone <sup>2</sup> , Marco Mauceri <sup>3</sup> , Danilo Crippa <sup>4</sup> , Annalisa Cannizzaro 1,5, Simona Boninelli <sup>1</sup> and Francesco La Via <sup>1</sup>**


**Abstract:** This work provides a comprehensive investigation of nitrogen and aluminum doping and its consequences for the physical properties of 3C-SiC. Free-standing 3C-SiC heteroepitaxial layers, intentionally doped with nitrogen or aluminum, were grown on Si (100) substrate with different 4◦ off-axis in a horizontal hot-wall chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor. The Si substrate was melted inside the CVD chamber, followed by the growth process. Micro-Raman, photoluminescence (PL) and stacking fault evaluation through molten KOH etching were performed on different doped samples. Then, the role of the doping and of the cut angle on the quality, density and length distribution of the stacking faults was studied, in order to estimate the influence of N and Al incorporation on the morphological and optical properties of the material. In particular, for both types of doping, it was observed that as the dopant concentration increased, the average length of the stacking faults (SFs) increased and their density decreased.

**Keywords:** 3C-SiC; stacking faults; doping; KOH etching
