Reduction of Vacuum Sublimation by Ion Beam Treatment for e-beam Deposited SiC Films

We present the low temperature (${\leq}1,000^{\circ}C$) vacuum sublimation behavior of an e-beam evaporative deposited on a SiC film and a method to reduce the vacuum sublimation through an ion beam process. The density of the SiC film deposited using the e-beam evaporation method was ~60% of the density of the bulk source material. We found that the sublimation became appreciable above ${\sim}750^{\circ}C$ under $1.5{\times}10^{-5}$ torr pressure and the sublimation rate increased with an increase in temperature, reaching ~70 nm/h at $950^{\circ}C$ when the coated sample was heated for 5 h. When the film was irradiated with 70 keV N+ ions prior to heating, the sublimation rate decreased to ~23 nm/h at a fluence of $1{\times}10^{17}\;ions/cm^2$. However, a further increase in fluence beyond this value or an extended heating period did not change (decrease or increase) the sublimation rate any further.