Atomic insight into concurrent He, D, and T sputtering and near-surface implantation of 3C-SiC crystallographic surfaces

• Main Authors: S. Bringuier, T. Abrams, J. Guterl, G. Vasudevamurthy, E. Unterberg, D. Rudakov, L. Holland
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-05-01
• Series: Nuclear Materials and Energy
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352179118301303

We present results from atomistic simulations of sputtering and near-surface implantation of concurrent He, D, and T bombardment of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC). This is achieved by first establishing a many-body interatomic potential parameter set to treat interactions of He and hydrogenic species in 3C-SiC informed by ab-initio calculations. To obtain sputtering yields we perform both classical molecular dynamics and binary collision approximation simulations for normal incident particles having energies ranging from 25 to 800 eV. We find that due to differences in species surface binding energy of various crystallographic surfaces in 3C-SiC, the sputtering yield of Si is significantly less than that of C, but sputtering yields show limited sensitivity to crystallographic surface orientation. An exception to this occurs when the terminating crystallographic surface plane is more rich in Si rather than C, resulting in comparable sputtering yields of Si and C. The influence of temperature on sputtering is explored and shows limited effect. Finally, the nature of implanted He, D, and T within 3C-SiC surfaces is investigated to understand implantation profiles and stability of defects. Keywords: Sputtering, Silicon carbide, Surface binding energy, Molecular dynamics