Synthesis of epitaxial diamond grains in cubic SiC by high temperature carbon implantation

3C-SiC layers have been implanted with carbon ions at 60 keV to a dose of 3X10¹⁷ and 1X10¹⁸ C⁺/cm². All of the implantation experiments were carried out at elevated temperature in the range of 900-1200°C to study the phases, which are formed, when excess carbon is introduced into the SiC lattice. At 1100 and at 1200°C small diamond grains are formed; these are embedded in the SiC and form perfectly oriented crystallites of a few nm size. Diamond is formed in SiC at 900°C as well, however, at high dose rate the impinging carbon ions can destroy the nucleated diamond grains.