Energetics of defects in b-SiC under irradiation

Energetics of point defects in b-SiC have been investigated using atomistic calculations with the empirical interatomic potential, where a simple static relaxation method and a dynamic relaxation method are separately employed. In addition to formation energy of isolated silicon interstitials, migration energies for interstitials and vacancies obtained from the dynamic relaxation method are much lower than those obtained from the simple static relaxation method. It indicates that the dynamic relaxation method possibly can provide more relaxed defect configuration than the simple static relaxation method.