Micropipe-free silicon carbide and related method of manufacture

A method of growing a single-crystal of semiconductor material in the nominal c-axis growth direction using a physical vapor transport (PVT) process in a sublimation system, wherein the crystal is completely free of micropipe defects is disclosed. The method comprises: attaching a seed material to a seed holder and forming a uniform thermal contact between the seed material and seed holder; placing a source material and the seed material attached to the seed holder in a reaction crucible, wherein constituent components of the sublimation system including at least the source material, the seed holder, and the reaction crucible are substantially free from unintentional impurities; and controlling growth temperature, growth pressure, sublimation flux and composition of the semiconductor material, and a temperature gradient between the source material and the seed material or the crystal growing on the seed material during the PVT process to eliminate micropipe-inducing process instabilities and grow the micropipe-free crystal on the seed material.