Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

The density of amorphous SiC layers formed by 2 MeV Si⁺ implantation into single crystalline 6H-SiC was measured by X-ray reflectometry and compared with the resultts of step height measurements. Reactive ion
etching was used to investigate the density as function of depth. The density of the as-amorphized SiC is about 12 % less than that of the crystalline material. Within the experimental accuracy the density reduction is homogeneous
over the whole layer thickness. Low temperature annealing leads to the formation of relaxed amorphous SiC with a density about 7 % below the crystalline one. These large density changes are in contrast to results in amorphous
Si. They can be explained by the high atomic density of SiC and the chemical disorder in the amorphous state of SiC.