Helium and strontium co-implantation into SiC at room temperature and isochronal annealing: Structural evolution of SiC and migration behaviour of strontium

The effects of helium, strontium, and silver triple ions implanted into SiC

“…Likewise, in the study by Li et al [ 22 ] Fe atoms were found to be trapped in cavities and forming clusters within them. Similar trapping was also observed for Ag co-implntated with He at RT after annealing at 1100 °C for 5 h [ 12 ] and for Ag and He co-implanted into SiC after annealing at 1000 °C for 5 h [ 25 ].…”

“…The appearance of D and G peaks in the annealed triple implanted sample is due to the presence of helium. Mokgadi et al [ 25 ] observed similar phenomenon in the annealed SiC co-implanted with Sr and He at room temperature. It was found that Si and C interstitials migrate and agglomerate into clusters around He bubbles after annealing, which could be the reason for the intense G and D bands observed in the sample annealed at 1000 °C.…”

“…The accumulation of short-range disorder results in the formation of homonuclear bonds viz. Si–Si homonuclear band in the range 400–600 cm −1 , and the C–C homonuclear band in the range 1100–1700 cm −1 [ 25 , [33] , [34] , [35] ]. The lack of amorphization is due to the implantation temperatures (600 °C and 350 °C) that are greater than the critical temperature of amorphization [ 26 , 32 ].…”

“…The as-implanted and annealed micrographs have some dark and light structures. The dark structures are exfoliated blisters/craters while the light structures are blisters, and the white particles are dust [ 25 ]. The dark structures seen in Fig.…”

“…To fully understand the migration behaviour of different fission products (FPs) in SiC, their migration needs to be investigated in environments mimicking the nuclear environment i.e., where FPs coexist in the presence of helium at elevated temperatures. Limited work has been done on the role of helium in the migration of FPs surrogates such as Ag, Fe, Mg, Kr, and Sr, implanted into SiC [ 12 , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] ]. However, no work has been reported on the influence of helium in the migration of FPs co-implanted into SiC.…”