Formation of SiC by radiative association

Abstract

Rate coefficients for radiative association of silicon and carbon atoms to form silicon carbide molecule (SiC) are estimated. The radiative association of Si(3P) and C(3P) atoms mainly occurs through the C3Π state followed by radiative decay to the X3Π state. For the temperature range of 300–14 000 K, the rate coefficients slowly increase with temperature and they can be expressed by K(T) = 2.038 × 10−17(T/300)−0.01263 exp(−136.73/T) cm3 s−1.