Study of damage in ion-irradiated α-SiC by optical spectroscopy.

UV-visible absorption and Raman scattering spectroscopy were used to investigate the effects of 4 MeV Xe-ion and 4 MeV Au-ion irradiations on α-SiC single crystals. The evolution of transmission spectra upon irradiation evidences an increase of the optical absorption. The optical band-gap energy decreases versus fluence, which is linked to band-gap closure attributed to the creation of localized states into the forbidden energy band. A strong effect of the irradiation temperature is observed as a result of dynamic annealing enhanced by the temperature increase. The Urbach energy increases versus fluence due to disorder accumulation in the damaged layer. Comparison of Urbach energy and disorder parameters extracted from Raman spectra shows that the Urbach energy is sensitive to the disorder induced by the accumulation of point defects.