Unraveling atomistic heating behavior of vacancy induced 3C-SiC during microwave exposure

This study explores the impact of pre-existing silicon and carbon vacancies on the microwave heating of 3C-SiC at an atomistic level using molecular dynamics simulations. Microwaves were introduced at different electric field strengths (0.1 and 0.5 V/Å) and different frequencies (100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 GHz) to the vacancy-induced 3C-SiC crystal to understand its heating characteristics. During microwave exposure, the temperature of the 3C-SiC crystal increased rapidly with increasing Si vacancies, electric field strength, and frequency. The results revealed that 3C-SiC crystals having 1.5 % and 2.0 % Si vacancies undergo 40–50 % physical and structural change with the application of microwave for 4.985 ns and 4.49 ns, respectively, at 0.5 V/Å and 300 GHz. Additionally, a comparative analysis was performed to study the microwave heating rate of 3C-SiC with Si and C vacancies (1.5 and 2.0 %). C vacancies at 1.5 % and 2.0 % showed 95.5 % and 142.2 % higher heating rates, respectively, than Si vacancies. Additionally, beyond 1000 K, microwave heating is driven by structural changes induced by vacancies as compared to the thermal conductivity of the 3C-SiC crystal.