PNNL

Abstract

There is considerable ambiguity about the formation of native defects and their clusters in SiC, since different empirical potential gives different results, particular related to the stability of interstitial configurations. Ab intio pseudopotential methods are used to study the formation and properties of native defects in beta-SiC. The results are compared with those calculated by molecular dynamics (MD) using a Tersoff potential, where the various cut-off distances found in the literature are employed. The formation energy of vacancies and antisite defects obtained by ab initio calculations are in good agreement with those given by the Tersoff potential, regardless of the cut-off distances, but there is a disparity for interstitials between the two methods, depending on the cut-off distances used in the Tersoff potential. The present results, however, provide guidelines for evaluating the quality and fit of empirical potentials for large-scale simulations of irradiation damage (displacement cascades) and point defect migration (recombination or annealing) in SiC.