Studies of Damage Accumulation in 4H Silicon Carbide by Ion-Channeling Techniques

Abstract:

Single crystal 4H-SiC was irradiated with 2 MeV Au ions at 165 K. Ion-induced defect configurations and damage accumulation were studied by ion-channeling techniques along the <0001>, > < 3 40 4 and > < 1 20 2 directions. A nonlinear dependence of damage accumulation is observed for both the Si and C sublattices along all three directions, and the relative disorder observed along the > < 3 40 4 and > < 1 20 2 directions is much higher than that along the <0001> direction. The damage accumulation can be described by a disorder accumulation model, which indicates that defect-stimulated amorphization is the primary amorphization mechanism in SiC, and the high disorder level for the large off-axis angles is attributed to particular defect configurations. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations demonstrate that most single interstitial configurations are shielded by Si and C atoms on the lattice sites along the <0001> direction, which significantly reduces their contribution to the backscattering/reaction yield along the <0001> direction.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volumes 475-479)
• Pages: 1341-1344
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.475-479.1341
• Online since: January 2005
• Authors: Y. Zhang, Fei Gao, Weilin Jiang, D.E. McCready, William J. Weber
• Keywords: Defect, Ion Channeling, Ion Irradiation, Molecular Dynamic (MD), Silicon Carbide (SiC)

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