Damage accumulation simulated previously was used to study volume swelling of 3C-SiC, and to calculate the elastic constants, bulk and elastic moduli of the cascade-amorphized SiC. The swelling increased rapidly with dose at low-dose levels, but the rate of increase decreased dramatically at higher dose with a saturation volume change of 8.2% for the cascade-amorphized state. The elastic constants in the cascade-amorphized SiC decrease by about 19, 29 and 46% for C11, C12 and C44, respectively, and 23% for bulk and elastic moduli. In order to understand defect annealing of damage accumulation, the stable Frenkel pairs created at low-energy events were annealed at different temperatures, using molecular dynamics methods, to determine the time required for interstitials to recombine with vacancies. The results showed that the low activation energies qualitatively overlap with experimental values determined for defect recovery below 300K. Thus, the present results suggested that this experimental recovery stage was associated with the spontaneous recovery of Frenkel pairs.

Atomic-Level Computer Simulation of SiC - Defect Accumulation, Mechanical Properties and Defect Recovery. F.Gao, W.J.Weber: Philosophical Magazine, 2005, 85[4-7], 509-18