Coordinated EDX and micro‐Raman analysis of presolar silicon carbide: A novel, nondestructive method to identify rare subgroup SiC

Abstract

AbstractWe report the development of a novel method to nondestructively identify presolar silicon carbide (SiC) grains with high initial 26Al/27Al ratios (>0.01) and extreme 13C‐enrichments (12C/13C ≤ 10) by backscattered electron‐energy dispersive X‐ray (EDX) and micro‐Raman analyses. Our survey of a large number of presolar SiC demonstrates that (1) ~80% of core‐collapse supernova and putative nova SiC can be identified by quantitative EDX and Raman analyses with >70% confidence; (2) ~90% of presolar SiC are predominantly 3C‐SiC, as indicated by their Raman transverse optical (TO) peak position and width; (3) presolar 3C‐SiC with 12C/13C ≤ 10 show lower Raman TO phonon frequencies compared to mainstream 3C‐SiC. The downward shifted phonon frequencies of the 13C‐enriched SiC with concomitant peak broadening are a natural consequence of isotope substitution. 13C‐enriched SiC can therefore be identified by micro‐Raman analysis; (4) larger shifts in the Raman TO peak position and width indicate deviations from the ideal 3C structure, including rare polytypes. Coordinated transmission electron microscopy analysis of one X and one mainstream SiC grain found them to be of 6H and 15R polytypes, respectively; (5) our correlated Raman and NanoSIMS study of mainstream SiC shows that high nitrogen content is a dominant factor in causing mainstream SiC Raman peak broadening without significant peak shifts; and (6) we found that the SiC condensation conditions in different stellar sites are astonishingly similar, except for X grains, which often condensed more rapidly and at higher atmospheric densities and temperatures, resulting in a higher fraction of grains with much downward shifted and broadened Raman TO peaks.