Nature of Defects Induced by Au Implantation in Hexagonal Silicon Carbide Single Crystals

Pulsed‐slow‐positron‐beam‐based positron lifetime spectroscopy was used to investigate the nature of vacancy defects induced by 20 MeV Au implantation in single crystals 6H‐SiC. Preliminary analysis of the data shows that at lower fluence, below $1014 cm−2,$ a positron lifetime of 220 ps has been obtained: it could be associated with the divacancy $VSi−VC$ in comparison with the literature. At higher fluence, above $1015 cm−2,$ a positron lifetime of 260–270 ps, increasing with the incident positron energy, has been observed after decomposition of the lifetime spectra. By comparison with lifetime calculations, open‐volumes such as quadrivacancy $(VSi−VC)2$ clusters could be associated with this value.