Structure and band gap determination of irradiation-induced amorphous nano-channels in LiNbO{sub 3}

Journal Article · Tue Apr 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4915932· OSTI ID:22399413

Pakarinen, O. H.; Chisholm, M. F. ^[1]; Liu, P. ^[2]; Patel, M. K. ^[2]; Zhang, Y. ^[1]; Wang, X. L. ^[3]; Weber, W. J. ^[2]

---

1. Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 (United States)
2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 (United States)
3. School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (MOE), Shandong University, Jinan 250100 (China)

The irradiation of lithium niobate with swift heavy ions results in the creation of amorphous nano-sized channels along the incident ion path. These nano-channels are on the order of a hundred microns in length and could be useful for photonic applications. However, there are two major challenges in these nano-channels characterization: (i) it is difficult to investigate the structural characteristics of these nano-channels due to their very long length and (ii) the analytical electron microscopic analysis of individual ion track is complicated due to electron beam sensitive nature of lithium niobate. Here, we report the first high resolution microscopic characterization of these amorphous nano-channels, widely known as ion-tracks, by direct imaging them at different depths in the material, and subsequently correlating the key characteristics with electronic energy loss of ions. Energetic Kr ions ({sup 84}Kr{sup 22} with 1.98 GeV energy) are used to irradiate single crystal lithium niobate with a fluence of 2 × 10{sup 10} ions/cm{sup 2}, which results in the formation of individual ion tracks with a penetration depth of ∼180 μm. Along the ion path, electron energy loss of the ions, which is responsible for creating the ion tracks, increases with depth under these conditions in LiNbO{sub 3}, resulting in increases in track diameter of a factor of ∼2 with depth. This diameter increase with electronic energy loss is consistent with predictions of the inelastic thermal spike model. We also show a new method to measure the band gap in individual ion track by using electron energy-loss spectroscopy.

• OSTI ID: 22399413
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 13; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ARSENIC IONS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
ENERGY LOSSES
ENERGY-LOSS SPECTROSCOPY
GEV RANGE
HEAVY IONS
IRRADIATION
KRYPTON 84 BEAMS
KRYPTON IONS
LITHIUM COMPOUNDS
MONOCRYSTALS
NANOSTRUCTURES
NIOBATES
PENETRATION DEPTH
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
THERMAL SPIKES