Distribution and characterization of iron in implanted silicon carbide

Analytical electron microscopy (AEM) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy-ion channeling (RBS-C) have been used to characterize single crystal alpha-silicon carbide implanted at room temperature with 160 keV Fe-57 ions to fluences of 1, 3, and 6 x 10(exp 16) ions/sq cm. Best correlations among AEM, RBS, and TRIM calculations were obtained assuming a density of the amorphized implanted regions equal to that of crystalline SiC. No iron-rich precipitates or clusters were detected by AEM. Inspection of the electron energy loss fine structure for iron in the implanted specimens suggests that the iron is not metallically bonded, supporting conclusions from earlier conversion electron Moessbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) studies. In-situ annealing surprisingly resulted in crystallization at 600 C with some redistribution of the implanted iron.