Activation energy of the growth of ion-beam-synthesized nano-crystalline 3C–SiC

In this experiment, carbon ions at 40keV were implanted into (100) high-purity p-type silicon wafers at 400°C to a fluence of 6.5×1017ions/cm2. Subsequent thermal annealing of the implanted samples was performed in a vacuum furnace at 800–1000°C. Glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) was used to characterize the crystalline quality and estimate the grain size of nano-crystalline 3C–SiC. Activation energy for the growth of 3C–SiC was evaluated following the annealing behaviour of the GIXRD-characteristic 3C–SiC (111) peaks. It was found that the 3C–SiC was directly formed during ion implantation at this substrate temperature and the activation energy of the process was about 0.05eV. Such a low energy was explained in terms of ion beam induced precipitate formation.