On the other hand it will likewise offer perspectives for processes which rely upon prevention of precipitation events, e.g. the fabrication of strained, pseudomorphic $\text{Si}_{1-y}\text{C}_y$ heterostructures \cite{}.
Epitaxial growth of 3C-SiC films is achieved either by ion beam synthesis (IBS) \cite{lindner02} and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques.
-While in CVD and MBE surface effects need to be takein into account, SiC formation during IBS takes place in the bulk of the Si crystal.
+While in CVD and MBE surface effects need to be taken into account, SiC formation during IBS takes place in the bulk of the Si crystal.
In the present work the simulation tries to realize conditions which hold for the ion implantation process.
First of all a picture of the supposed precipitation event is presented.
To investigate the interstitial configurations of C and Si in Si, a simulation volume of 9 silicon unit cells in each direction is used.
The temperature is set to $T=0\, K$.
The insertion positions are illustrated in Fig. 2.
-In separated simulation runs a carbon and a silicon atom respectively is inserted at the tetrahedral $(0,0,0)$ (${\color{red}\triangleleft}$), hexagonal $(-1/8,-1/8,1/8)$ (${\color{green}\triangleright}$), nearby dumbbell $(-1/8,-1/8,-1/4)$ (${\color{magenta}\bullet}$) and at random positions (in units of the silicon lattice constant) where the origin is located in the centre of the unit cell.
+In separated simulation runs a carbon and a silicon atom respectively is inserted at the tetrahedral $(0,0,0)$ (${\color{red}\triangleleft}$), hexagonal $(-1/8,-1/8,1/8)$ (${\color{green}\triangleright}$), nearby dumbbell $(-1/8,-1/8,-1/4)$ (${\color{magenta}\Box}$) and at random positions (in units of the silicon lattice constant) where the origin is located in the centre of the unit cell.
In order to avoid too high potential energies in the case of the dumbbell configuration the nearest silicon neighbour atom is shifted to $(-3/8,-3/8,-1/4)$ ($\circ$).
The energy introduced into the system is scaled out within a relaxation phase of $2\, ps$.
The system temperature is set to $450\, ^{\circ} \textrm{C}$.
$6000$ carbon atoms (the amount necessary to form a 3C-SiC precipitate with a radius of 3 nm) are consecutively inserted in a way to keep constant the system temperature.
Precipitation is examined for three insertion volumes which differ in size.
-The whole simulation volume, the volume corresponding to the size of a minimal SiC precipitate and the volume containing the amount of silicon necessary for the formation of such a minimal precipitate.
+The whole simulation volume $V_1$, the volume corresponding to the size of a minimal SiC precipitate $V_2$ and the volume containing the amount of silicon necessary for the formation of such a minimal precipitate $V_3$ are examined.
The two latter ones are accomplished since no long range diffusion of the carbon atoms is expected at this temperature.
Following the insertion procedure the system is cooled down to $20\, ^{\circ} \textrm{C}$.
\begin{figure}[!h]
\begin{center}
- \includegraphics[width=12cm]{../plot/foo_end.ps}
- \includegraphics[width=12cm]{../plot/foo150.ps}
+ \includegraphics[width=12cm]{pc_si-c_c-c.ps}
\caption{Pair correlation functions for Si-C and C-C bonds.
- Carbon atoms are introduced into the whole simulation volume ({\color{red}-}), the region which corresponds to the size of a minimal SiC precipitate ({\color{green}-}) and the volume which contains the necessary amount of silicon for such a minimal precipitate ({\color{blue}-}).}
+ Carbon atoms are introduced into the whole simulation volume $V_1$, the region which corresponds to the size of a minimal SiC precipitate $V_2$ and the volume which contains the necessary amount of silicon for such a minimal precipitate $V_2$ respectively.}
\end{center}
\end{figure}
-Fig. 4 shows results of the simulation runs targeting the observation of precipitation events.
-The C-C pair correlation function suggests carbon nucleation for the simulation runs where carbon was inserted into the two smaller regions.
-The peak at $1.5\, \textrm{\AA}$ fits quite well the next neighbour distance of diamond.
+\begin{figure}[!h]
+ \begin{center}
+ \includegraphics[width=12cm]{pc_si-si.ps}
+ \caption{Si-Si pair correlation function for pure Si and Si with 3000 inserted C atoms.
+ The inset shows a magnified region between 0.28 and 0.36 nm.}
+ \end{center}
+\end{figure}
+Fig. 3 shows resulting pair correlation functions of the simulation runs targeting the observation of precipitation events.
+The contributions of Si-C and C-C pairs are presented separately each of them displaying the pair correlation for the three different volumes $V_1$, $V_2$ and $V_3$ (as explained above) exposed to carbon insertion.
+Results show no signigicant difference between $V_1$ and $V_2$.
+Si-Si pairs for the case of 3000 inserted C atoms inserted into $V_2$ and a reference function for pure Si are displayed in Fig. 4.
+
+The amount of C-C bonds for $V_1$ are much smaller than for $V_2$ and $V_3$ since carbon atoms are spread over the total simulation volume which means that there are only 0.2 carbon atoms per silicon unit cell on average.
+The first C-C peak appears at about 0.15 nm.
+This is comparable to the nearest neighbour distance for graphite or diamond.
+It is assumed that these carbon atoms form strong C-C bonds, which is supported by a decrease of the total energy during carbon insertion for the $V_2$ and $V_3$ in contrast to the $V_3$ simulation.
+
+The peak at 0.31 nm perfectly matches the distance of two carbon atoms in the SiC lattice which in SiC is also expected for the Si-Si bonds.
+After insertion of carbon atoms the Si-Si pair correlation function in fact shows non-zero values in the range of the C-C peak width while the amount of Si pairs at the regular distances at 0.24 and 0.38 nm decreases.
+However no clear peak is observed and random analyses of configurations in which distances around 0.3 nm appear, i.e. visualization of such atom pairs, identify <100> C-Si dumbbells to be responsible for stretching the Si-Si next neighbour distance for low concentrations of carbon, i.e. for the $V_1$ and early stages of $V_2$ and $V_3$ simulation runs.
+For higher carbon concentrations the defect concentration is likewise increased and a considerable amount of damage is introduced into the inserted volume.
+Damage and superposition of defects generate new displacement arrangements which become hard to categorize and trace.
+The slightly higher amount and intense increase of Si-Si pairs at distances smaller 0.31 nm is probably due to the Si-Si cutoff radius of 0.296 nm.
+The cutoff function causes artificial forces pushing the Si atoms out of the cutoff region.
+
+Wieder durch visuelle untersuchungen -> c-c 0.31 paare durch aufeinandertreffen unterschiedlich orientierter 100 dumbbells bzw mit 110.
+C fuer sic schon besser arrangiert. Vorstellung, dass diese zuerst anordnen und spaeter dann evtl am Si ziehen ...
+Nevertheless this might indicate that carbon arranges first, then 'pulls' the Si ...
+\\\\
On the other hand the Si-C pair correlation function indicates formation of SiC bonds with an increased crystallinity for the simulation in which carbon is inserted into the whole simulation volume.
There is more carbon forming Si-C bonds than C-C bonds.
This gives suspect to the competition of Si-C and C-C bond formation in which the predominance of either of them depends on the method handling carbon insertion.
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