Structural stability of REE-PO4 (REE = Sm,Tb) under swift heavy ion irradiation
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Julich (Germany); Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (Germany)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Julich (Germany)
- Stanford University, CA (United States)
We report rare earth element (REE) phosphates are an attractive host matrix for long-lived radionuclides from nuclear waste because of the radiation tolerance exhibited by naturally occurring REE phosphate specimens. Here we show that SmPO4 (monazite structure) and TbPO4 (xenotime structure) exhibit a similar amorphization response to swift heavy ion irradiation despite different starting structures. SmPO4 and TbPO4 were irradiated with 1.1 GeV Au ions and analyzed using synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The radiation response of the phosphates was evaluated by extracting the amorphous fraction at each irradiation fluence, and a single-impact model was used to determine the amorphous cross section and track diameter. Amorphization within individual ion tracks was confirmed using head-on TEM imaging, and the amorphous track size agreed with the value deduced by XRD analysis. Raman measurements were performed to qualitatively confirm the ion-induced crystalline-to-amorphous transformation which proceeds similarly for both phosphates.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); University of Tennessee; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; SC0020321; AC02-06CH11357; NA0003975
- OSTI ID:
- 1883846
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1901277; OSTI ID: 2328613
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section B, Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 527, Issue 15; ISSN 0168-583X
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
REE-phosphates
monazite
xenotime
nuclear waste form
ion irradiation
x-ray diffraction
Raman spectroscopy
crystalline-to-amorphous transformation
REE-phosphates
monazite
xenotime
nuclear waste form
ion irradiation
X-ray diffraction
Raman spectroscopy
crystalline-to-amorphous transformation