Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
A high-resolution electron microscopy study of β–SiC nanoparticles formed by C+-implantation of single crystal silicon with subsequent annealing has been carried out. The as-implanted sample had a trilayered structure, in which the surface layer, A, and the bottom layer, C, were crystalline but damaged, and the middle layer, B, was amorphous. After annealing this structure, β–SiC particles were formed throughout the trilayered structure but with different forms: a few epitaxial β–SiC nanoparticles in layers A and C, and more random nanoparticles in layer B. The β–SiC nanoparticles, in the size range 2–8 nm, should be responsible for the blue-emitting effect of the silicon-based porous β–SiC.