Microscopic origin of black spot defect swelling in single crystal 3C-SiC

In this study, we perform a series of simulation of a high-energy particle irradiation on a 3C-SiC at low temperature through molecular dynamic analysis. In order to determine the formation mechanism of black spot defects (BSD), the evolution of defect clusters during the cascade process is examined. Simulation results show that there are more isolated interstitials scattering across the structure while the less mobile vacancies are concentrated in defect clusters, which is consistent with the depleted zone theory proposed by Brinkman [3]. These results also match the TEM observation and simulation results done by Lin et al. [4] and support the argument that black spot defects are in fact vacancy-rich regions, with individual interstitials spreading into bulk, stretching the lattice structure.