Determination of Burgers vector of screw dislocations in 6H-SiC single crystals by synchrotron white beam x-ray topography

Individual screw dislocations along the [0001] axis in 6H-SiC single crystals have been characterized by means of Synchrotron White Beam X-ray Topography (SWBXT). The magnitude of the Burgers vector was determined from: (1) the diameter of circular diffraction-contrast images of dislocations in back-reflection topographs, (2) the width of bi-modal images associated with screw dislocations in transmission topographs, (3) the magnitude of the tilt of the lattice planes on both sides of dislocation core in projection topographs, and (4) also the magnitude of the tilt of the lattice planes in section topographs. All of the four methods showed reasonable consistency. The sense of the Burgers vector can also be deduced from the above-mentioned tilt of the lattice planes. Results revealed that in 6H-SiC a variety of screw dislocations can be found with Burgers vector magnitude ranging from 1c to 7c (c is the lattice constant along [0001] axis). This work demonstrates that SWBXT can be used as a quantitative technique for detailed analyses of line defect configurations.