The growth of bulk cubic silicon carbide has for a long time seemed to be something for the future. However, in this thesis the initial steps towards bulk cubic silicon carbide have been taken. The achievement of producing bulk cubic silicon carbide will have a great impact in various fields of science and industry such as for example the fields of semiconductor technology within electronic- and optoelectronic devices and bio-medical applications. The process that has been used to grow the bulk cubic silicon carbide is a modification of the seeded sublimation growth, and the seeds have been grown by sublimation epitaxy. Selected samples have been characterized with a variety of different methods. The surface morphology of the samples has been examined using optical microscope, atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope. The crystal structure has been investigated by the methods X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The electrical resistance of the grown seeds was evaluated by four probe measurements. High crystal quality seeds have been grown with semiconductor properties and bulk silicon carbide was demonstrated using the seeds.

The market for renewable energy sources, and solar cells in particular is growing year by year, as a result there is a large interest in research on new materials and new technologies for solar power applications. In this thesis the photovoltaic properties of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) has been investigated. The research includes material growth using the sublimation epitaxy method, both n-type and p-type SiC have been investigated. 3C-SiC pn junctions have been produced and their electrical properties have been characterized, this is the first time 3C-SiC pn junctions have been studied in the research group. Photoresponse has been demonstrated from a 3C-SiC pn junction with Al and N used as p- and ntype dopants. This is the first demonstrated solar cell performance using 3C-SiC, to our knowledge.