Molecular dynamics methods, and the Tersoff potential, were used to study the mechanisms of defect production by Si- and C-recoils of various energies in β-type material. The threshold displacement energies for Si and C atoms were accurately determined for the 4 main crystallographic directions. The difficulty of defining a single threshold displacement energy for this material was pointed out. High-energy recoil-induced displacement cascades were simulated, and it was found that defects on the C sub-lattice always out-numbered defects on the Si sub-lattice. The temperature hardly affected the number of Frenkel pairs which was produced within the cascade. This molecular dynamics model appeared to be satisfactory for reproducing the experimentally observed irradiation-induced amorphization of SiC at cryogenic temperatures.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Defect Production in Irradiated β-SiC. L.Malerba, J.M.Perlado, A.Sanchez-Rubio, I.Pastor, L.Colombo, T.Diaz de la Rubia: Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2000, 283-287, 794-8