Negative Cu ions of 60 keV have been applied to generate metal nanocrystals embedded in insulators. Crystalline (c-), amorphous (a-)SiO2 and a spinel oxide, MgO·2(Al2O3), were irradiated at various dose rates up to about 100 µA/cm2, at a total dose of 3.O×1016 ions/cm2. In a-Sio2, morphology of nanoparticles and the resultant optical property changed with dose rate and, at a critical condition, showed in-plane arrangement of nanocrystals. The optical property of c-Si0 2 (a-quartz) was qualitatively similar to that of a-SiO2, but the implanted region of c-SiO2 showed different irradiation responses. The c-SiO2 was susceptible to radiation-induced amorphization but the nanoparticle morphology was still different from a-SiO2, suggesting a stronger depth-oriented driving force. Unlike SiO2, the spinel oxide showed good structural stability against the implantation and no tendency of the long-range atomic rearrangement. The results indicate that the crystallinity and the relevant interactions may play an important role in the nanoparticle growth during the implantation.

Single crystals of 6H-SiC have been irradiated with a variety of ions over a wide range of fluences and temperatures. The temperature and dose dependence of damage accumulation has been investigated using in-situ Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry in channeling geometry. At low temperatures, the accumulation of structural disorder exhibits a sigmoidal dependence on dose. At room temperature and higher, simultaneous recovery processes during irradiation significantly reduce the damage accumulation rates by up to a factor of five. Isochronal and isothermal annealing studies have been used to study the damage recovery behavior. For low defect concentrations introduced by 550 keV Si+ irradiation at 160 K, complete recovery is observed at 300 K. However, defects introduced by He+ irradiation on the Si sublattice are more difficult to anneal at room temperature, which suggests trapping of the implanted helium may inhibit defect recombination. Below room temperature, the thermal recovery of defects on the Si sublattice has an activation energy on the order of 0.3 ± 0.1 eV. Defect recovery above 570 K has an activation energy on the order of 1.5 ± 0.3 eV.

Single crystal silicon carbide (SiC) has been 2 MeV silicon ion irradiated in various irradiation temperature and ion flux ranges to measure the effect of these parameters on the critical dose for amorphization. The temperature and flux range for which amorphization was observed ranged from 80 to 400 K and 0.066 to 3 × 104 dpa/s, respectively. The critical dose, Dcrit was found by locating the depth of the boundary between partially crystalline and fully amorphous material using dark field TEM from samples prepared in cross section. This depth was compared to the damage profile as calculated using the TRIM-96 code. The temperature dependence of Dcrit is found to agree well with previously reported values, though new evidence suggests a defect species becoming mobile in the 250-300 K range. Also of significance is that Dcrit was dependent on flux at 340 K, ranging from 0.79 displacements per atom at the lowest ion flux to ∼0.6 dpa at the highest flux level. The dose rate dependence of Dcrit, is compared with a chemical rate theory model previously described by the authors. It is seen that the dose rate dependence is substantially weaker than theorized. An extrapolation of the measured dose rate dependence is also compared with recent data on fast neutron amorphized SiC.

Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of neutron damage in β-SiC have been performed using a modified version of the Tersoff potential. The Threshold Displacement Energy (TDE) for Si and C atoms at 300 K has been determined along directions [001], [110], [111] and [ 1 1 1 ]. The existence of recombination barriers, which allow the formation of metastable, temperature-sensitive defects even below the threshold, has been observed. Displacement cascades produced by both C- and Si-recoils of energies spanning from 0.5 keV up to, respectively, 5 keV and 8 keV have also been simulated at 300 K and 1300 K. Their analysis, together with the analysis of damage accumulation (∼3.4×10-3 DPA) at 1300 K, reveals that the two sub-lattices exhibit opposite responses to irradiation: whereas only a little damage is produced on the “ductile” Si sub-lattice, many point-defects accumulate on the much more “fragile” C sub-lattice. A preliminary study of the nature and clustering tendency of these defects is performed. The possibility of disorder-induced amorphization is considered and the preliminary result is that no amorphization takes place at the dose and temperature simulated.

Annealing of defects in proton irradiated bulk n-type 6H- and semi-insulating 4H-SiC has been investigated by positron lifetime spectroscopy and Doppler-broadening measurements. For the n-type sample radiation induced defects in dependence of the proton fluence were studied. Three or four annealing stages were found, during which the formation of larger defect complexes could be observed.

Irradiation experiments have been performed 60° off the surface normal for 6H-SiC single crystals at various temperatures (185-870 K) using 550 keV C+ ions over a fluence range from 1×1018 to 5×109 ions/m2. Atomic disorder on the Si sublattice, as determined by in-situ RBS/channeling analysis, ranged from dilute defects to complete amorphization. The critical amorphization dose of ∼0.23 dpa (on the Si sublattice) at 185 K has been determined. Asymmetric shapes in angular yield profiles across the crystallographic axis <0001> emerged above 1.5×1019 C−/m2 (∼0.05 dpa in the near-surface region), which might be associated with the lattice disturbance in the crystal structure. A gradual decrease in half-angular width was observed with the increase of ion fluence in the experiment. The minimum yield exhibits a rather linear relationship with ion dose at the surface. Post-irradiation annealing at the irradiation temperature did not result in measurable recovery for fluences ranging from 4 × 1018 to 2×1019 C+/m2 at 300, 470 and 670 K. Results also show that low fluence (<8×1018 C+/m2) irradiation at 185 K followed by thermal annealing results in similar defect concentrations to irradiation at that same temperature to the same ion fluence. Thus, at low fluences, the accumulated defects are in thermal equilibrium with the structure.

Metastable phase formation under highly non-equilibrium thermodynamic conditions within high-energy particle tracks are investigated. In particular, the possible formation of diamond by heavy-ion irradiation of graphite at ambient temperature is examined. This work was motivated, in part, by an earlier study which discovered nanometer-grain polycrystalline diamond aggregates of submicron-size in uranium-rich carbonaceous mineral assemblages of Precambrian age. It was proposed that these diamonds were formed within the particle tracks produced in the carbonaceous minerals by the radioactive decay of uranium. To test the hypothesis that nanodiamonds can form by ion irradiation, fine-grain polycrystalline graphite sheets were irradiated with 400 MeV Kr ions to low fluence (6 × 1012 ions-cm−2). The ion-irradiated (and unirradiated control) graphite were then subjected to acid dissolution treatments to remove the graphite and isolate any diamonds that were produced. These acid residues were characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The acid residue of the ion-irradiated graphite was found to contain nanodiamonds (at several ppm of bulk), demonstrating that ion irradiation of graphite at ambient temperature can produce diamond.

The influence of irradiation with particles (H+, He+, 15N+) on the self-diffusion in relaxed metallic glasses (59Fe in Fe91Zr9, 59Fe in Co58Fe5Ni10Si11B16, 95Zr in Fe24Zr76) has been investigated by means of the radiotracer technique using ion-beam sputtering for serial sectioning of the specimens. Combination of the results of these experiments with accompanying molecular-dynamics simulations not only leads to an understanding of a novel phenomenon of irradiation-enhanced diffusion observed on these materials, but also confirms and refines our previous view that, in the absence of irradiation, diffusion in relaxed metallic glasses occurs by collective diffusion mechanisms not involving intrinsic point defects as diffusion vehicles.

Tungsten, aluminum oxide and Ti films were deposited onto a Cu substrate by means of a rf magnetron sputtering method. TEM thin foils for cross-sectional irradiation were prepared using a focused ion beam (FIB). Electron irradiation was carried out in a Hitachi H- 1300 electron microscope at I MV. The specimen temperatures during irradiation were 300, 473, 623 and 703K. The phases of W, aluminum oxide and Ti films were identified from selected area diffraction patterns as bcc, amorphous and hcp phases, respectively. The phases of W and Ti did not change due to irradiation. However, the amorphous aluminum oxide phase transformed to crystalline γ-Aluminum oxide. Electron irradiation caused no change in the composition of the interface of W/aluminum oxide, but diffusion was enhanced on the interfaces of aluminum oxide/Ti and Ti/Cu.

In this study we discuss the microstructural changes after electron and proton irradiation and the thermal evolution of the radiation induced defects during isochronal annealing. The nominally undoped samples were irradiated either with 3 MeV protons to a fluence of 1.2× 1018 p/cm2 or with 1 MeV electrons to a fluence of 1×1018 e/cm2. The investigation was performed with positron lifetime and Doppler-broadening measurements. The measurements were done at room temperature and in some cases down to 10 K to investigate the thermal dependence of the trapping characteristics of the positrons.

In this contribution, we present a study aimed at investigating the microstructural changes of ZnS single crystals and CVD (chemical vapour deposition) grown crystals after electron and proton irradiation. Positron lifetime and Doppler-broadening measurements were performed to investigate the stability of the radiation induced defects and possible clustering mechanisms during isochronal annealing. After electron as well as proton irradiation the significant changes in the annihilation characteristics are indications of radiation induced open-volume-type defects. It is found that electron and proton irradiation causes different changes in the positron annihilation characteristics. After electron irradiation a significant defect component is observed which can be attributed to the annihilation in monovacancies. During isochronal annealing agglomerations to divacancy-type defects take place. Proton irradiation reveals a significantly different defect structure. Isochronal annealing causes agglomerations to larger defect complexes. The observed annealing stages are indications of the annealing of variously sized vacancy complexes.

ZnAl2O4 spinel has been formed in Al2O3 by ion implantation. Sequential implantation of Zn and 0 in overlapping profiles followed by annealing in Ar + H2 gives rise to a nearly continuous epitaxial layer of ZnAl2O4 oriented with (111) planes parallel to (0001) planes of Al2O3. If only Zn is implanted, then discrete bands of ZnAl2O4 oriented with (422) planes parallel to (0001) planes of Al2O3 are produced. By similar methods, oriented MgAl2O4 spinel also has been produced in Al2O3 by sequential Mg + O implantation.

Ion implantation and thermal processing techniques have been used to form embedded ferromagnetic nanophase precipitates and thereby create magneto-optically active near-surface regions on otherwise inactive materials. Ferromagnetic precipitates were formed by first implanting Fe+ or Ni− into Y0.15Zr0.85O1.93(YSZ) with an implant energy of 140 keV, a fluence of 8.0 × 1016 ions/cm2, and at a temperature of-189°C. After implantation, the specimens were annealed at temperatures ranging from 500 to 1100°C in several types of reducing atmospheres. X-ray diffraction and TEM analysis of the Fe- or Ni-implanted/annealed specimens revealed that crystallographically coherent precipitates of metallic α-Fe, magnetite (Fe3O4), or Ni could be formed in YSZ depending on the annealing conditions. In particular, the cooling rate was established as the critical factor that determined whether Fe or Fe3O4 precipitates were created. Magneto-optical effects arising from ferromagnetic precipitates of Fe, Fe3O4, and Ni in the near-surface region of YSZ were observed and characterized using magnetic circular dichroism (MCD). The magneto-optical response of the α-Fe, Fe3O4, and Ni precipitates was markedly different as indicated by the MCD-detected hysteresis curves. The precipitation mechanism, the chemical nature of the precipitates, and the particle-size distributions resulting from different annealing conditions were investigated and correlated with the precipitate magneto-optical properties.

To create cavities a Si (100) single crystal and a MgO (100) single crystal were subjected to 30 keV 3 He implantation and a subsequent annealing at 1100 K. In both materials the formation of cavities takes place during the annealing stage when the implanted gas is released. The presence of cavities was detected by positron beam analysis. After the creation of cavities was established the samples were re-filled with deuterium by means of 15 keV D+ implantation with a dose of 1015 cm−2. During the subsequent annealing at 1000 K D escaped from the cavities. In the case of MgO further growth of cavities was observed.

Results are reported on laser-induced surface modification of 150-400 µm thick free-standing diamond films with excimer lasers under different irradiation regimes, including laser polishing at a grazing beam incidence or ablative etching of the films at the normal beam incidence. Properties of the laser-graphitized layer at the diamond surface were studied with optical spectroscopy techniques in the process of oxidative removal of the layer with increasing temperature of oxidation in ambient air. The optical properties and oxidation stability of the laser-modified surface layer were found to change through its thickness from the surface to the diamond interface, depending on the laser ablation regime.

The nucleation of small diamond crystals during irradiation of spherical graphitic particles (’bucky onions’) is discussed. A mechanism for irradiation-induced self-compression of such ’onions’ is proposed. It is demonstrated that this may yield pressures which are sufficiently high for diamond formation. The theoretical results are in good agreement with experimental findings.

Surfaces bombarded with energetic ions may develop a rough or a ripple surface morphology. The ripple formation has been successfully described by the instability caused by preferential erosion, the ripple wavelength being determined by the competition between surface erosion and thermally activated diffusion. However, as recent experiments and computer simulations have shown, ripple formation takes place even at the low temperatures, when thermally activated processes are suppressed. In this paper we propose a theory to explain low-temperature ripple formation based on the ion-induced effective surface diffusion.

The microstructural evolution of polymers induced by ion beam irradiation was investigated using gas permeation measurements with different molecule size gases and positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) using variable-energy positron. Simultaneous large increases in gas permeability and permselectivity of polymer-ceramic composite membranes modified by 180 keV H+ ion irradiation indicated that ion irradiation of polymers can modify the microstructure of polymer at sub-nanometer level in a controlled way. PAS results were consistent with the gas permeation results. The results of this work demonstrated ion beam irradiation has a promising application potential in the separation industry.

By using an electron beam irradiation, reproducible active surface condition of misting can be obtained on the silicate glass. Since an electron beam irradiation activates the SiO2 surface, it controls and enhances the nucleation frequency of fine water drops. The dangling bond is one of reasons to activate the surface condition. Based on the results of electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra, the electron beam irradiation increases the density of E'-center on the surface.

Studies of defects generated by high energy (>1 GeV) heavy ion irradiation in high-Tc superconductors have been performed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Our study shows that high dose irradiation leads to the formation of nano-twins, by which the columnar defects are connected. An analysis of the local Fourier components of the image intensity in [001] lattice images indicates that these new "twin" boundaries are much more diffuse than preexisting twin boundaries in YBCO. The mechanism of the formation of nano-twin boundaries on {110} planes and their possible relation to superconducting properties are discussed.