Optimizing machinability and minimizing dislocation slip in hexagonal silicon carbide: The role of off-axis angle and processing surface type

This work investigates the effects of processing direction/plane and off-axis angle on the removal process of monocrystal SiC and presents new findings. The processing direction/plane and off-axis angle has a direct bearing on material removal amount, abrasive wear amount, and subsurface damage layer depth. Material removal amount can be increased by up to four times just by optimizing the processing direction. It was discovered that, different from previous studies, the use of triangular pyramid abrasives as the processing tool results in substantially higher machinability for the Si face compared to the C face, particularly when the off-axis angle is selected as 0°. In addition, the temperature and stress components during the processing process are thoroughly analyzed in this paper. According to the analysis, the Burgers vector b = 1/3 < 11$\overline{2}$0 > occurring in the shuffle set is dominated by basal slip and is not affected by off-axis angle and crystal face type, but the dislocation depth caused by basal slip is closely related to the processing direction. As a semiconductor substrate material for epitaxial growth, damage including dislocations in the processed surface/subsurface area is not allowed. The influence mechanism of subsurface damage under the coupling effect of processing direction, off-axis angle and crystal face type is presented in this study.