Ion implantation-induced damage depth profile determination in SiC by means of RBS/C and bevelling technique

Ion implantation-induced damage depth profiles of 450 keV Al+ ion-implanted 6H-SiC were studied using RBS/C technique for implantations along channeling direction and non-channeling direction with fluence of 3.4 × 1015 cm−2. Bevelling method of sample preparation was used to get access to the deeper situated layers over the whole damaged region and below. To determine damage degree at the specific depth of the bevelled sample, RBS/C technique combined with a 3 MeV Li2+ ion beam of size of about 30 μm × 30 μm was utilized (micro-RBS/C). The micro-RBS/C method combined with the bevelling technique gave us a possibility to probe deeper reaching damage regions than in the case of conventional RBS/C investigations. It also utilizes a near-surface part of backscattered spectra, which is slightly influenced by damage created by probing ions and a random fraction of probing beam. Additionally, there is no need to perform energy calibration of detector for backscattered particles. Due to much smaller sample area hit by probing ions of micro-beam, the required fluence, comparable to that at conventional RBS/C measurements is obtained at much lower charge. Negligibly small effect of bevelling-induced mechanical damage has been observed in this study. The obtained results by micro-RBS/C method validate the results of computer simulations (Crystal-TRIM software).