Formation of silicon carbide nanowire on insulator through direct wet oxidation

Silicon carbide on insulator is a promising platform for electronic devices at high temperature as well as for opto-electrical applications. Utilizing the chemical inertness of SiC, this work presents a novel technique to form cubic-silicon carbide (3C-SiC) on silicon dioxide (SiO₂) by using silicon wet-thermal-oxidation. Experimental data confirmed that SiO₂ was successfully formed underneath of 300 nm width SiC nanowires, while the properties of SiC was almost unaffected during the oxidation process. This simple technique will open the pathway to the development of SiCOI (SiC on insulator) based electrical and optical applications.