Nanoscale engineering of radiation tolerant silicon carbide

Yanwen Zhang, Manabu Ishimaru, Tamas Varga, Takuji Oda, Chris Hardiman, Haizhou Xue, Yutai Katoh, Steven Shannon, William J. Weber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

108 Scopus citations

Abstract

Radiation tolerance is determined by how effectively the microstructure can remove point defects produced by irradiation. Engineered nanocrystalline SiC with a high-density of stacking faults (SFs) has significantly enhanced recombination of interstitials and vacancies, leading to self-healing of irradiation-induced defects. While single crystal SiC readily undergoes an irradiation-induced crystalline to amorphous transformation at room temperature, the nano-engineered SiC with a high-density of SFs exhibits more than an order of magnitude increase in radiation resistance. Molecular dynamics simulations of collision cascades show that the nano-layered SFs lead to enhanced mobility of interstitial Si atoms. The remarkable radiation resistance in the nano-engineered SiC is attributed to the high-density of SFs within nano-sized grain structures that significantly enhance point defect annihilation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13429-13436
Number of pages8
JournalPhysical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Volume14
Issue number38
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 14 2012

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