Recrystallization of MeV Si implanted 6H-SiC

Abstract

Microstructures of recrystallized layers in 8 MeV Si3+ ion implanted 6-H-SiC (0001) wafers have been characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy. Epitaxial recrystallization of buried amorphous layers was observed at annealing temperature as low as 1000 °C. Layer-by-layer epitaxy of 6H-SiC initially occurred and it was changed to columnar growth when layer-by-layer growth exceeded 100 nm in thickness. From the microdiffraction analysis, it was found that the columnar regions are defected 6H-SiC with crystal orientations different from the substrate. In addition to 6H-SiC, epitaxial 3C-SiC was also confirmed in the recrystallized layer. Based on these results, we have proposed a structure model of the recrystallized layer in which stacking faults in the columnar regions are induced by mismatched connections between the columnar and layered 6H-SiC regions.

Irradiation effects induced in silicon carbide by low and high energy ions

“…Thermal treatments at lower temperatures give rise to a shrinkage of the damaged layer which is due to both a densification of the amorphous SiC caused by some defect annealing within the amorphous structure itself [24][25][26] and to the formation of an epitaxial layer at the amorphous-to-crystalline interface. At higher temperatures, the damaged layer is subject to an imperfect recrystallization [27][28][29]. Nevertheless, recent investigations [30] reported a complete epitaxial regrowth of 6H-SiC within the amorphous layer after annealing at 890°C for 2 h. Finally, in the case where the implanted layer is partially damaged, thermal annealings produce a rather rapid decrease of disorder at temperatures around 300-500°C and damage is practically removed at about 1000°C [3].…”

Ion-beam-induced chemical disorder in GaN

“…MeV-ion irradiation is a useful way to produce a thicker damaged layer. [3][4][5] In fact, Kucheyev et al 2 performed 2 MeV gold ͑Au͒ irradiation into GaN and successfully obtained surface and buried amorphous layers clearly separated by a heavily damaged crystalline GaN. In the present study, we prepared high-energy ion irradiated GaN samples and characterized their atomistic structures by means of transmission electron microscopy ͑TEM͒.…”

Atomic-level simulations of epitaxial recrystallization and amorphous-to-crystalline transition in4H−SiC

“…10,12,14,34,35,38 Most of the recrystallization studies have been carried out in 6H-SiC ͑Refs. 10, 12, 14, and 38͒ along ͗0001͘ direction.…”

“…11 Such extremely high temperatures are not suitable for most technology processes. The annealing behavior has been stud-ied by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy ͑RBS͒, 12,13 which determines the relative lattice disorder, and by transmission electron microscopy, 14 in which amorphous layers were observed to recrystallize. Ion-beam-induced epitaxial crystallization has been observed to occur at a temperature as low as 735 K; 15 however, the quality of the recrystallized SiC layer is poor due to the accumulation of irradiation defects and the formation of growth defects.…”