Patent ID: 7776228

Claim:
A catalyst-aided chemical polishing method for polishing an SiC wafer comprising: preparing a polishing tool including a processing base surface provided by a surface of a catalyst consisting of platinum, gold or ceramic solid catalyst; preparing a processing solution in which a halogen-containing molecule is dissolved; bringing the processing base surface of the polishing tool into contact with the processing solution so that a halogen radical is generated at the processing base surface by dissociating the halogen-containing molecule; and bringing a surface of the SiC wafer close to or into contact with the processing base surface of the polishing tool in such a manner that the processing solution is present between the surface of the SiC wafer and the polishing base surface, thereby polishing the surface to be polished of the SiC wafer through dissolution of a surface atom of the SiC wafer as halogenide in the processing solution, said halogenide being produced by chemical reaction between the halogen radical generated at the processing base surface of the polishing tool and the surface atom of the SiC wafer.