Antisite defect centers in 3C-SiC produced by ion irradiation

We have studied the ion-induced defects in a semiconductor (3C-SiC) using an empirical molecular dynamics calculation at temperature below 2000 K. The structures of produced defects were analysed by the Pixel Mapping method, focusing on the antisite related defects. In addition to the DI center that had been ascribed to be due to single antisite pair (CSi–SiC) aligning in <1 1 1> directions, we observed antisite clusters composed of 3–5 antisites. As a model cluster, SiC(CSi)4 had been predicted by quasistatic calculation, which was consistent with the lower formation energy of CSi than SiC. This implied inversely SiC and CSi(SiC)4 can be more stable if once they were formed under energetic ion impacts. In fact, we observed a clear trend of growth of CSi(SiC)n approaching to CSi(SiC)4 under 5 keV boron impacts above annealing temperature.