Numerical study of silicon vacancy color centers in silicon carbide by helium ion implantation and subsequent annealing

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulation is adopted to discover the formation mechanism of silicon vacancy color center and to study the damage evolution in 4H-SiC during helium ion implantation with different annealing temperatures. The number and distribution of silicon vacancy color centers during He ion implantation can be more accurately simulated by introducing the ionization energy loss during implantation. A new method for numerical statistic of silicon vacancy color centers is proposed, which takes into account the structure around the color centers and makes statistical results more accurate than the Wigner-Seitz defect analysis method. Meanwhile, the photoluminescence spectra of silicon vacancy color centers at different helium ion doses are characterized to verify the correctness of the numerical analysis. The new silicon vacancy color center identification method can help predicting the optimal annealing temperature for silicon vacancy color centers, and provide guidance for subsequent color center annealing experiments.

Keywords: annealing; color center; helium ion implantation; molecular dynamics; photoluminescence spectroscopy; silicon carbide.