Non-ionization energy loss of proton in different regions in SiC

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC), as a representative of the third-generation semiconductor materials, is widely used in some fields which may suffer strong radiation such as in the cases of military affairs, aerospace and reactor. SiC possesses the superior radiation-resistance characteristic. However, SiC under the proton irradiation generate a lot of defects, resulting in degradation of device performance and even complete loss of its function. Therefore, the study on the irradiation damage to SiC under proton irradiation possesses important significance. A large number of studies have shown that for most of electronic devices and different types of incident particles, the degradation of device performance caused by displacement damage is linearly dependent on non-ionizing energy loss (NIEL), so the displacement damage can be evaluated by NIEL. In this work, the Monte Carlo software Geant4 is used to simulate the relationship between NIEL and proton energy, and the variation of NIEL with the depth of the material and the contribution of different types of primary recoil atoms to the total NIEL are also studied. The NIEL simulation results show that the NIEL in SiC material is less than that in Si and Ga semiconductor material under the same proton irradiation, proving that the stability and the radiation-resistance of SiC are stronger. The simulation results of NIEL at different depths show that the most serious damage regions of the material under different energy protons are diverse. Under the irradiation of low energy proton, the most serious region of the displacement damage occurs at the end of the proton range. With the increase of proton energy, the worst damage region of material will gradually move from the end of the proton range to the surface of SiC material. According to the contribution of different types of primary recoil atoms to the total NIEL, when the energy of the incident proton is low, the displacement damage of the proton in the SiC is mainly caused by 28Si and 12C, and the damage caused by 28Si is obviously higher than that by 12C. As the energy of proton increases, the 28Si and 12C are still the main causes of Bragg peak of the NIEL at the end of the proton range, but the number of ions generated by nuclear reactions increases accordingly, and the displacement damage caused by these ions increases in the shallow area of SiC, leading the surface of the material to be the worst damaged region. The combination of the two factors caused the most serious damage region moves from the end of the proton range to the surface of the material with the increase of proton energy. The results of this study are useful for the application of SiC devices to irradiation environment.