Radiation Effects in Nonmetals: Amorphization, Phase Decomposition, and Nanoparticles

1998 ◽  
Vol 540 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Meldrum ◽  
L.A. Boatner ◽  
C.W. White ◽  
D.O. Henderson

AbstractRadiation effects in nonmetals have been studied for well over a century by geologists, mineralogists, physicists, and materials scientists. The present work focuses on recent results of investigations of the ion-beam-induced amorphization of the ABO4 compounds – including the orthophosphates (LnPO4; Ln = lanthanides) and the orthosilicates: zircon (ZrSiO4), hafnon (HfSiO4), and thorite (ThSiO4). In the case of the orthosilicates, heavy-ion irradiation at elevated temperatures causes the precipitation of a nanocrystalline metal oxide. Electron irradiation effects in these amorphized insulating ceramics can produce localized recrystallization on a nanometer scale. Similar electron irradiation techniques were used to nucleate monodispersed compound semiconductor nanocrystals formed by ion implantation of the elemental components into fused silica. Methods for the formation of novel structural relationships between embedded nanocrystals and their hosts have been developed and the results presented here demonstrate the general flexibility of ion implantation and irradiation techniques for producing unique near-surface microstructures in ion-implanted host materials.

Author(s):  
Charles W. Allen ◽  
Robert C. Birtcher

The uranium silicides, including U3Si, are under study as candidate low enrichment nuclear fuels. Ion beam simulations of the in-reactor behavior of such materials are performed because a similar damage structure can be produced in hours by energetic heavy ions which requires years in actual reactor tests. This contribution treats one aspect of the microstructural behavior of U3Si under high energy electron irradiation and low dose energetic heavy ion irradiation and is based on in situ experiments, performed at the HVEM-Tandem User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. This Facility interfaces a 2 MV Tandem ion accelerator and a 0.6 MV ion implanter to a 1.2 MeV AEI high voltage electron microscope, which allows a wide variety of in situ ion beam experiments to be performed with simultaneous irradiation and electron microscopy or diffraction.At elevated temperatures, U3Si exhibits the ordered AuCu3 structure. On cooling below 1058 K, the intermetallic transforms, evidently martensitically, to a body-centered tetragonal structure (alternatively, the structure may be described as face-centered tetragonal, which would be fcc except for a 1 pet tetragonal distortion). Mechanical twinning accompanies the transformation; however, diferences between electron diffraction patterns from twinned and non-twinned martensite plates could not be distinguished.


1996 ◽  
Vol 439 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Müller ◽  
M. L. Jenkins ◽  
C. Abromeit ◽  
H. Wollenberger

AbstractStereo transmission electron microscopy has been used to characterise the distribution in depth of disordered zones and associated dislocation loops in the ordered alloys Ni3Al and Cu3Au after heavy ion irradiation, most extensively for Ni3Al irradiated with 50 keV Ta+ ions at a temperature of 573 K. The Cu3Au specimen was irradiated with 50 keV Ni+ ions at an incident angle of 45° at a temperature of 373 K. In Ni3Al the defect yield, i.e. the probability for a disordered zone to contain a loop was found to be strongly dependent on the depth of the zone in the foil, varying from about 0.7 for near-surface zones to about 0.2 in the bulk. The sizes and shapes of disordered zones were only weakly dependent on depth, except for a small population of zones very near the surface which were strongly elongated parallel to the incident ion beam. In Cu3Au the surface had a smaller but still significant effect on the defect yield. The dependence of the tranverse disordered zone diameter d on ion energy E for Ta+ irradiation of NiA was found to follow a relationship d = k1, E1/α with k, = 2.4 ± 0.4 and α = 3.3 ± 0.4. A similar relationship with the same value of α is valid for a wide variety of incident ion/target combinations found in the literature.


Author(s):  
R. C. Birtcher ◽  
L. M. Wang ◽  
C. W. Allen ◽  
R. C. Ewing

We present here results of in situ TEM diffraction observations of the response of U3Si and U3Si2 when subjected to 1 MeV electron irradiation or to 1.5 MeV Kr ion irradiation, and observations of damage occuring in natural zirconolite. High energy electron irradiation or energetic heavy ion irradiation were performed in situ at the HVEM-Tandem User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. In this Facility, a 2 MV Tandem ion accelerator and a 0.6 MV ion implanter have been interfaced to a 1.2 MeV AEI high voltage electron microscope. This allows a wide variety of in situ experiments to be performed with simultaneous ion irradiation and conventional transmission electron microscopy. During the electron irradiation, the electron beam was focused to a diameter of about 2 μ.m at the specimen thin area. The ion beam was approximately 2 mm in diameter and was uniform over the entire specimen. With the specimen mounted in a heating holder, the temperature increase indicated by the furnace thermocouple during the ion irradiation was typically 8 °K.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Sherrod ◽  
Eric C. O’Quinn ◽  
Igor M. Gussev ◽  
Cale Overstreet ◽  
Joerg Neuefeind ◽  
...  

AbstractThe structural response of Dy2TiO5 oxide under swift heavy ion irradiation (2.2 GeV Au ions) was studied over a range of structural length scales utilizing neutron total scattering experiments. Refinement of diffraction data confirms that the long-range orthorhombic structure is susceptible to ion beam-induced amorphization with limited crystalline fraction remaining after irradiation to 8 × 1012 ions/cm2. In contrast, the local atomic arrangement, examined through pair distribution function analysis, shows only subtle changes after irradiation and is still described best by the original orthorhombic structural model. A comparison to Dy2Ti2O7 pyrochlore oxide under the same irradiation conditions reveals a different behavior: while the dysprosium titanate pyrochlore is more radiation resistant over the long-range with smaller degree of amorphization as compared to Dy2TiO5, the former involves more local atomic rearrangements, best described by a pyrochlore-to-weberite-type transformation. These results highlight the importance of short-range and medium-range order analysis for a comprehensive description of radiation behavior.


2012 ◽  
Vol 167 (7) ◽  
pp. 506-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Devaraju ◽  
S. V.S. Nageswara Rao ◽  
N. Srinivasa Rao ◽  
V. Saikiran ◽  
T. K. Chan ◽  
...  

Metals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinchun Chen ◽  
Xuan Yin ◽  
Jie Jin

To satisfy the harsh service demand of stainless steel and aviation bearing steel, the anticorrosion and wettability behaviors of 9Cr18 stainless steel and M50 bearing steel tailored by ion beam surface modification technology were experimentally investigated. By controlling the ion implantation (F+, N+, N+ + Ti+) or deposition processes, different surface-modified layers and ceramic layers or composite layers with both effects (ion implantation and deposition processes) were obtained on metal surfaces. The wettability was characterized by a contact angle instrument, and the thermodynamics stabilization of ion implantation-treated metals in corrosive solution was evaluated through an electrochemical technique. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed for detecting the chemical bonding states of the implanted elements. The results indicated that ion implantation or deposition-induced surface-modified layers or coating layers could increase water contact angles, namely improving hydrophobicity as well as thermodynamic stabilization in corrosive medium. Meanwhile, wettability with lubricant oil was almost not changed. The implanted elements could induce the formation of new phases in the near-surface region of metals, and the wettability behaviors were closely related to the as-formed ceramic components and amorphous sublayer.


1994 ◽  
Vol 339 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Heera ◽  
R. Kögler ◽  
W. Skorupa ◽  
J. Stoemenos

ABSTRACTThe evolution of the damage in the near surface region of single crystalline 6H-SiC generated by 200 keV Ge+ ion implantation at room temperature (RT) was investigated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy/chanelling (RBS/C). The threshold dose for amorphization was found to be about 3 · 1014 cm-2, Amorphous surface layers produced with Ge+ ion doses above the threshold were partly annealed by 300 keV Si+ ion beam induced epitaxial crystallization (IBIEC) at a relatively low temperature of 480°C For comparison, temperatures of at least 1450°C are necessary to recrystallize amorphous SiC layers without assisting ion irradiation. The structure and quality of both the amorphous and recrystallized layers were characterized by cross-section transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). Density changes of SiC due to amorphization were measured by step height measurements.


1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (S2) ◽  
pp. 558-559
Author(s):  
K. E. Sickafus

In ion irradiation damage studies on ceramics, damage evolution is often assessed using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and ion channeling (RBS/C) techniques. In a typical experiment, a single crystal ceramic sample is irradiated with heavy ions and then the crystal is exposed to He ions along a low-index crystallographic orientation. Simultaneously, the backscattered He ion yield is measured as a function of ion energy loss. For He ions scattered from the heavy ion irradiated volume, the He ion yield increases in proportion to the heavy ion dose. The RBS/C yield rises because the He ion beam is dechanneled by, for instance, interstitial point defects and clusters and their associated strain fields. A quantitative measure of dechanneling is denoted by χmin, defined as the ratio of the He ion yield along a low-index crystal orientation, to the yield obtained in a random (non-channeling) orientation. The damage parameter xmin varies from 0 to 1, where 1 represents the maximum damage level that can be measured by RBS/C.


2018 ◽  
Vol 781 ◽  
pp. 70-75
Author(s):  
Sergei Ghyngazov ◽  
Valeria Kostenko ◽  
Sergey Shevelev ◽  
Anatoliy I. Kupchishin ◽  
Aleksey Kondratyuk

The effect of ion irradiation on the strength characteristics of magnesium oxide and ceramics based on zirconia is studied. The MgO samples were a single crystal grown in an artificial manner. Samples of zirconium ceramics were prepared by ceramic technology. Irradiation of MgO crystals was carried out by Si+ ions (E = 150 keV), Fe+ (E = 70 keV), C+ (E = 50 keV) at room temperature. The fluence varied within the range (1016–1017) сm–2. The modification of the investigated types of ceramics was carried out by ions Al+ (Е = 60 keV), Ar+ (Е= 60 keV), N+ (E = 50 keV). We used ion beams of microsecond duration and moderate power (the current density in the pulse was 3 10-3 A/cm2). Fluence was 1017 cm-2. The irradiation of the ceramics with an ion beam C+ (E = 50 keV) was also performed with nanosecond duration (τ = 50 ns). It is established that ionic irradiation of magnesium oxide leads to an increase in crack resistance and a critical stress intensity factor. Irradiation of ceramics leads to hardening of its near-surface layers.


1997 ◽  
Vol 504 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. White ◽  
J. D. Budai ◽  
A. L. Meldrum ◽  
S. P. Withrow ◽  
R. A. Zuhr ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTSequential ion implantation followed by thermal annealing has been used to form encapsulated CdS, ZnS, and PbS nanocrystals in SiO2 and Al2O3 matrices. In SiO2, nanoparticles are nearly spherical and randomly oriented, and ZnS and PbS nanocrystals exhibit bimodal size distributions. In Al2O3, nanoparticles are facetted and oriented with respect to the matrix. Initial photoluminescence (PL) results are presented.


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