Surface blistering of ion irradiated SiC studied by grazing incidence electron microscopy

We present the structural analysis of surface blisters on SiC crystals heavily irradiated by He+ and H+ ions using grazing incidence electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. The shapes of the blisters were similar to those observed in silicon as the target, but the critical fluence and skin structure of the H-blisters were considerably different from those in silicon, while the He-blisters had features very similar to the case of silicon. The differences between silicon and SiC can be tentatively explained by the differences of binding energies of Si–Si, Si–C, Si–H and C–H.