Mechanism of the swift heavy ion induced epitaxial recrystallization in predamaged silicon carbide

Although silicon carbide has attracted extensive investigations of ion irradiation effects at low energy owing to its potential use in harsh environments, very few works were carried out in the field of ion irradiation at high energy. A recent preliminary study exploring the combination of low and high energy ion irradiation effects in silicon carbide revealed that the damaged layer formed by low energy ion irradiation can undergo an epitaxial recrystallization under subsequent swift heavy ion irradiation. The present paper is devoted to the investigation of the mechanisms at the origin of this phenomenon by performing additional experiments. A detailed analysis of the kinetics of this recrystallization effect demonstrates that the latter cannot be explained by the models proposed for the well-known ion-beam-induced epitaxial crystallization process. Furthermore, it is found that this effect can be accounted for by a mechanism combining the melting within the ion tracks of the amorphous zones through a thermal spike process and their subsequent epitaxial recrystallization initiated from the neighboring crystalline regions wherever the size of the latter surpasses a certain critical value. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3236627]