Recent progress in the atomic-scale simulations of fundamental damage production processes in SiC was reviewed, which includes the displacement threshold energy surface, the primary damage state and statistics of defect production, multiple ion¯solid collision events and structural evolution in SiC. The threshold energy surface, Ed, appeared to be highly anisotropic, and the results of molecular dynamics simulations, in conjunction with experimental studies, suggested that Ed values of 20eV for C and 35eV for Si should be used in Kinchin¯Pease calculations. The Si displacement cascades with energies up to 50keV showed that the surviving defects were dominated by C interstitials and vacancies, consistent with experimental observations. The defect production efficiency decreases with increasing recoil energy, but the number and size of clusters or complex domains formed at the end of cascades were very small, independent of cascade energy. A large number of 10keV displacement cascades were randomly generated in a model crystal to simulate multiple ion¯solid interaction and damage accumulation. The coalescence of clusters represents an important mechanism leading to the complete amorphization of SiC, and the relative disorder and swelling behavior showed an excellent agreement with experimental observations. high-resolution transmission electron microscopic images simulated from the molecular dynamics cell reveal the microstructural evolution of multiple ion¯solid collision events, and provide atomic-level interpretations of experimentally observed features in SiC.

Defect Production, Multiple Ion-Solid Interactions and Amorphization in SiC. F.Gao, W.J.Weber, R.Devanathan: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 2002, 191[1-4], 487-96