  Silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky diodes 21 mum thick with small surfaces and
high N-dopant concentration have been used to detect alpha particles and low
energy light ions. In particular 12C and 16O beams at incident energies between
5 and 18 MeV were used. The diode active-region depletion-thickness, the
linearity of the response, energy resolution and signal rise-time were measured
for different values of the applied reverse bias. Moreover the radiation damage
on SiC diodes irradiated with 53 MeV 16O beam has been explored. The data show
that SiC material is radiation harder than silicon but at least one order of
magnitude less hard than epitaxial silicon diodes. An inversion in the signal
was found at a fluence of 10^15 ions/cm^2.
