Micro-structural evolution of cubic zirconia irradiated with swift heavy ions

S. Moll (1) , L. Thome (1) , G. Sattonnay (2) , F. Garrido (1) , L. Vincent (1) , J. Jagielski (3, 4) , T. Thome (5)

1 CSNSM PCI
2 ICMMO - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay
3 IEMT - Institute of Electronic Materials Technology
4 The Andrzej Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies
5 PSA Peugeot Citroën

This article deals with the study of the micro-structural properties of cubic zirconia irradiated with swift heavy ions, based on the combination of complementary analysis techniques (TEM, AFM, XRD, RBS/C). At low irradiation fluences, cross-sectional TEM observations show the creation of latent tracks in the wake of incident ions by electronic excitation processes. The melt matter flowing from ion tracks leads to the formation of large hillocks at the surface of samples revealed by AFM. At high irradiation fluences, the overlapping of tracks results in the subdivision of crystals into slightly disoriented nano-crystallites detected by XRD. RBS/C data analyzed with a Monte-Carlo simulation code confirm the occurrence of this peculiar micro-structural transformation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mots clés: Cubic zirconia; Ion irradiation; TEM; AFM; XRD; RBS; X-RAY-DIFFRACTION; VOIGT FUNCTION; WASTE; PLUTONIUM; CERAMICS; CRYSTALS; NUCLEAR

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

S. Moll, L. Thome, G. Sattonnay, F. Garrido, L. Vincent, et al.. Micro-structural evolution of cubic zirconia irradiated with swift heavy ions. 8th International Conference on Ion Implantation and Other Applications of Ions and Electrons, Jun 2008, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland. pp.S61-S64, ⟨10.1016/j.vacuum.2009.01.023⟩. ⟨in2p3-00684910⟩