I have seen papers that have deposited them on different TEM grids, one of the main ones being Si. However, the temperature at which the SiC crystallizes seems to depend on many factors. Does anyone have experience with this that can offer some insight?
I tried depositing 100 nm of SiC on amorphous Si3N4 grids at 900C but this produced a thin layer of amorphous SiC.
My goal is to get 50 nm islands of or nanoparticles of 3C-SiC on my TEM grid if possible.
Dear Benjamin,
I am not sure you can obtain crystalline SiC growing at 900 C... It should be made at higher temp. I would suggest you to grow your thin film on a single crystal substrate that you can heater above 1200 C, then you can follow the sample preparation for TEM analysis.
Best Regards.
Dear Benjamin,
It may not be possible for you to deposit crystalline SiC on TEM grid at 900 deg. C. What I suggest is that you deposit these crystalline coatings on a substrate which is stable at higher temperature and then use conventional TEM sample preparation technique to slice off and thin down the sample down to less than 100 nm. You can examine these samples under TEM.
Best wishes.
I Agree with Harish and Everton. It's probably not possible for you to grow it on the grid directly, in any case, you would have to figure out a trick to make it work. So follow their advise and grow it in another manner and transfer your crystals in a manner to observe the TEM image.
I am going to try to deposit on single crystal Si which I have seen several papers do. The highest temperature that I can deposit at is 900C, and the highest temperature that I can anneal the sample at afterwards in a chamber is 1000C. Does this have any chance of producing crystalline SiC?
I think you have a chance if you can anneal it to the annealing temp requiring crystallization. But from Everton's comment, you might not get hot enough. Try it, if you can do it quickly, then you will know.
I am going to try to anneal 4 samples at 1000C and 4 at 1200C. Any tips on annealing time? The ones at 1000C can not be annealed for more than 1 hr, but that ones at 1200C have a bit more flexibility.
4 samples... how about 1 Hr at 1000C, and one 45 min, 30 min, and 15 min.
If it works, you will see the trend, but it might not work.
1 at 1200C for 1 hr, 1 for 2 hr, 3 hr, and 4 hr.
If 1200 for 4 hours doesn't work, something is out of wack.
If it does work, get some more samples ready for the next go around.
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