Damage accumulation and defect relaxation in 4H-SiC

Journal Article · Wed Sep 15 04:00:00 EDT 2004 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.70.125203· OSTI ID:20664874

Zhang, Y; Gao, F; Jiang, W; McCready, D E; Weber, W J ^[1]

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1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, Washington 99352 (United States)

A nonlinear dependence of damage disorder on dose is observed for both Si and C sublattices in 4H-SiC under 2 MeV Au irradiation at 165 K. The relative disorder observed along the <4403> direction is much higher than that along the <0001> direction. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations demonstrate that most interstitial configurations are formed on the Si-C dimer rows that are parallel to the <0001> direction. As a result, these interstitials are shielded by the Si and C atoms on the lattice sites, which significantly reduces the contribution of these interstitials to the backscattering/reaction yield along the <0001> direction. During isochronal annealing below room temperature, the relative disorder decreases along the <0001> direction, as expected; however, the disorder is stable on the Si sublattice and increases slightly on the C sublattice when measured along the <4403> direction due to relaxation of some metastable defects to lower energy configurations. As the annealing temperature increases, similar recovery behavior on both Si and C sublattices along the <0001> direction indicates coupling of Si and C recovery processes; however, slightly higher recovery temperatures on the C sublattice along the <4403> direction suggests some decoupling of the Si and C recovery processes. Based on the structures and energetics of defects from MD simulations, new insights into defect configurations and relaxation processes are described.

• OSTI ID: 20664874
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 70; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANNEALING
BACKSCATTERING
COUPLING
DAMAGE
DECOUPLING
DEFECTS
GOLD
INTERSTITIALS
MEV RANGE 01-10
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
RADIATION EFFECTS
RELAXATION
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON CARBIDES
SIMULATION
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0065-0273 K
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K