Damage development of sintered SiC ceramics with the depth variation in Ar ion-irradiation at 600 ℃

Irradiation damage of the materials depends on the irradiation dose and the intrinsic property of the material. In this paper, the high purity hot pressing sintered SiC ceramics with very few second phase and excellent crystallinity were prepared as the target materials, and the high irradiation dose up to 0.95 and 3.16 dpa respectively were chosen. The as-sintered SiC ceramics were irradiated with a 160 keV Ar ion beam at 600 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectrum, transmission electron microscopy and nanoindentation tests were utilized to analyze the microstructure variations on the surface of irradiated SiC, and it was found that the irradiated crystals kept crystallinity, although amorphization of SiC was generated with 10–25 nm depth, following with a mixture of point defect clusters and extended defects. Furthermore, it is also evident that there is a balance between irradiated-induced damages buildup and dynamic annealing of defects in high temperature.