Gold, silver and copper nanocrystal formation in SiC by MeV implantation

Abstract Nanoclusters gold, silver and copper are produced in 6H-SiC by implanting 1.0 MeV Au, 2.0 MeV Ag and 2.0 MeV Cu into the Si face of SiC at room or elevated temperature followed by annealing at various temperatures. The absorption bands for each type of metal nanoclusters in SiC were determined using optical absorption spectrophotometry. Elevated temperature implantation reduces optical absorption due to ion implantation induced defects. Using the Mie theory, we determined the index of refraction in the implanted volume.