UV-visible absorption and Raman scattering spectroscopy were used to investigate the effects of 4 MeV Xe-ion and 4 MeV Au-ion irradiations on α-SiC single crystals. The evolution of transmission spectra upon irradiation evidences an increase of the optical absorption. The optical band-gap energy decreases versus fluence, which is linked to band-gap closure attributed to the creation of localized states into the forbidden energy band. A strong effect of the irradiation temperature is observed as a result of dynamic annealing enhanced by the temperature increase. The Urbach energy increases versus fluence due to disorder accumulation in the damaged layer. Comparison of Urbach energy and disorder parameters extracted from Raman spectra shows that the Urbach energy is sensitive to the disorder induced by the accumulation of point defects.

Single crystals of 4H-SiC were irradiated with swift heavy ions (332 MeV Ti, 106 MeV Pb and 2.7 GeV U) in the electronic energy loss regime. The resulting damage was investigated with UV-visible optical absorption spectroscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The evolution of the Raman data with fluence shows an accumulation of isolated point defects without amorphization of the material and a partial recrystallization of the structure, but only at the lowest fluence. Furthermore, the longitudinal optical phonon-plasmon coupling mode disappears upon irradiation, suggesting a strong perturbation of the electronic structure. This evolution is consistent with the optical bandgap decrease and the Urbach edge broadening that was also previously observed for the irradiation with 4 MeV Au ions.