Near-surface recrystallization of the amorphous implanted layer of ion implanted 6H-SiC

The recrystallization and subsequent crystal growth during annealing of amorphous surface layers on 6H-SiC produced by ion implantation is investigated. Amorphous surface layers were produced by ion implantation of 360 keV ions of iodine, silver, xenon, cesium and strontium into single crystalline 6H-silicon carbide samples. The ion fluence for all the implantations were in the order of 1016 cm−2. Vacuum annealing of the damaged silicon carbide samples was then performed. The microstructure of SiC surfaces before and after annealing was investigated using a high resolution field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM). SEM analysis was complimented by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). SEM images acquired by an in-lens detector using an accelerating voltage of 2 kV show nano-crystallites developed for all implanted samples after annealing. Larger and more faceted crystallites along with elongated thin crystallites were observed for iodine and xenon implanted 6H-SiC. Crystallites formed on surfaces implanted with strontium and cesium were smaller and less faceted. Strontium, silver and cesium implanted samples also exhibited more cavities on the surface. AFM was used to evaluate the effect of annealing on the surface roughness. For all the amorphous surfaces which were essentially featureless, the root mean square (rms) roughness was approximately 1 nm. The roughness increased to approximately 17 nm for the iodine implanted sample after annealing with the surface roughness below this value for all the other samples. AFM also showed that the largest crystals grew to heights of about 17, 20, 45, 50 and 65 nm for Sr, Cs, Ag, Xe and I implanted samples after annealing at 1200 °C for 5 h respectively. SEM images and AFM analysis suggest that iodine is more effective in promoting crystal growth during the annealing of bombardment-induced amorphous SiC layers than the rest of the ions we implanted. In samples of silicon carbide co-implanted with iodine and silver, few cavities were visible on the surface indicating that iodine influenced the recrystallization. Surface crystallites that grew on the iodine implanted surfaces were more resistant to thermal etching and decomposition than those that grew on the silver implanted samples at temperatures of up to 1400 °C for 30 h.