Validity of Bragg’s rule for heavy-ion stopping in silicon carbide

Abstract

The stopping powers for O, Al, Cr, Mn, Co, and Cu in a self-supporting SiC film have been measured in transmission geometry over a continuous range of energies using a time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis system. These stopping data, along with the stopping data in Si and C obtained using the same ions and measurement technique, are used to assess the validity of the Bragg additivity rule for stopping powers in SiC over a range of ions and energies. Within experimental uncertainties ͑Ϯ4%͒, the results indicate that Bragg's rule is valid in SiC for the ion species and energy regions studied. The measured stopping powers in C, Si, and SiC are also compared with the stopping power predictions of the two most recent versions of the SRIM ͑stopping and range of ions in matter͒ codes. While both versions of SRIM show varying degrees of agreement with the measured stopping data, there are significant deviations of the SRIM predictions for some ions and energy regions.

Absolute hydrogen depth profiling using the resonant $^{1}$H($^{15}$N,$αγ$)$^{12}$C nuclear reaction

“…An early comprehensive review of stopping in inorganic materials showed no deviations from Bragg's rule within a few percent precision [20]. More recent research on these cases either confirm Bragg's rule within ±4% [23,24] or show deviations of up to 7% [24].…”

Stopping power measurements with the Time-of-Flight (ToF) technique

“…These include: measuring the energy loss of alpha particles from alpha emitters (i.e. 241 Am and 212 Bi) and converting to thickness from tabulated energy loss values [12], measuring the energy loss of an alpha beam [10,11,36,37,40,[64][65][66][67], measuring the energy loss of a Li beam [26] and determining the thickness using tabulated stopping power values [68], direct measurement of the film thickness from cross sectional micrographs using TEM with surface roughness evaluated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) [11,[69][70][71], weight and area measurements [26,30,56,72], by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) on films grown on bulk substrates [62,65,70,73], and by NIR spectrometry by comparing simulated and measured reflection spectra [18]. AFM [6,67,73], and profilometry [62], have been used to determine the surface roughness and its contribution to the uncertainty.…”

“…The measurement of the energy loss of ions in materials is of crucial importance in a number of academic and industrial fields [1][2][3][4][5]. For example, an accurate knowledge of the stopping power is essential for compositional and structural analysis of thin films and surfaces utilizing Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques, [6][7][8][9] in computational and experimental studies of radiation effects and radiation damage in materials and electronics under extreme conditions, [10] in electronic device fabrication, [11] nuclear physics, [12] astrophysics, [13] and medical physics, [14]. Despite the fundamental importance of measured stopping power data to these fields, there are still numerical disagreements between energy loss models and measured values for various combinations of ion and target [15,16].…”

Theoretical study of the channeling effect in the electronic stopping power of silicon carbide nanocrystal for low-energy protons and helium ions

“…Radiation effects in silicon carbide (SiC) have been studied for both scientific and practical reasons [26][27][28][29][30]. Due to their high strength, excellent high-temperature properties, good corrosion resistance and low neutron absorption cross-section, silicon carbide fiber/silicon carbide matrix composites are considered as perspective materials for the advanced nuclear applications, e.g., structural materials and fuel coatings in fission reactors, structural components in fusion reactor [31].…”