Disorder accumulation and recovery in gold-ion irradiated 3C-SiC

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A single-crystal 3C-SiC film on a Si/SiO2/Si (separation by implantation of oxygen ) substrate was irradiated in different areas at 156 K with Au2+ ions to low fluences. The disorder profiles as a function of dose on both the Si and C sublattices have been determined in situ using a combination of 0.94 MeV D+ Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and nuclear reaction analysis in channeling geometry along the ⟨100⟩, ⟨110⟩, and ⟨111⟩ axes. The results indicate that for the same damage state, the level of disorder on the Si sublattice in 3C-SiC follows a decreasing order along the ⟨111⟩, ⟨100⟩, and ⟨110⟩ axes, while that on the C sublattice shows comparable values. Similar levels of Si and C disorder are observed along the ⟨111⟩ axis over the applied dose range. However, the level of C disorder is higher than that of Si disorder along all axes at low doses. The amount of disorder recovery during thermal annealing depends on the sublattice (Si or C) and crystallographic orientation. Room-temperature recovery occurs for both sublattices in 3C-SiC irradiated to a dose of 0.047 dpa or lower. Significant recovery is observed along all directions during thermal annealing at 600 K. The results are discussed and compared to those for 6H-SiC and 4H-SiC under similar irradiation conditions.