Kinetic aspects of the growth of hydrogen induced platelets in SiC

Annealing of heavily hydrogen-implanted silicon carbide (SiC) leads to the formation of one specific type of defect: hydrogen induced platelets. These defects may be regarded as two-dimensional precipitates of H atoms stored in a stable configuration. In this article, we have studied the growth kine tics of these platelets upon annealing in the 800-1000 degrees C range by t ransmission electron microscopy. We show that the growth of these defects p roceeds through the exchange of H atoms with the result that larger ones gr ow at the expense of the smaller ones during annealing. This process can be described in terms of a conservative Ostwald ripening mechanism. The activ ation energy for this growth is found to be about 3.4 eV, a value similar t o that observed for the "effective" diffusion of H in heavily H-implanted S iC. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)06812-2].