Raman scattering investigations on disorder and recovery induced by low and high energy ion irradiation on 3C-SiC

The cubic polytype of SiC (3C-SiC) epilayer grown on Si has been irradiated with 200 keV Si+ ions for various ion doses (0.025 dpa-0.6 dpa) followed by 14 MeV Si+ ion irradiation (ion fluences: 1 x 10(14) -1 x 10(15) ions/cm(2)) at room temperature to study the recovery of damage caused by low energy ions. The disorder was estimated using Raman Scattering results and it is explained by direct impact model. From the total disorder and chemical disorder values, the three stages of damage evolution is clearly observed upon 200 keV Si+ ion irradiation. Upon 14 MeV Si+ ion irradiation on 3C-SiC, the sample has not amorphized even upto the ion fluence of 1 x 10(15) ions/cm(2). The present experimental results show that when the damage(caused by low energy ion) is less (<0.05dpa), the recovery of damage occurred upon high energy Si+ ion irradiation and it is mainly due to ionization induced annealing of defects.

Automated summary

The study found that damage caused by low energy ions can be effectively recovered by high energy Si+ ion irradiation, mainly due to ionization induced annealing of defects.