Thermal annealing of unetched fission tracks in apatite

Journal Article · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2012 · Earth and Planetary Science Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.01.008· OSTI ID:1386660

Li, Weixing; Lang, Maik; Gleadow, Andrew J. W.; Zdorovets, Maxim V.; Ewing, Rodney C.

Tracks created by fission events in ceramics are randomly-oriented, linear radiation-damage regions about 10 to 25 μm in length but only several nm in diameter. In the absence of a method to observe the entire length of a latent, unetched track, the details of the structure and the process of the thermal-annealing of tracks have remained elusive, despite their importance to fission track thermochronology and radiation damage studies in nuclear materials. Here, we have used a novel sample preparation technique, together with advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM), to successfully image the entire length and in situ thermal annealing of latent tracks created by 80 MeV Xe ions implanted in apatite. Track annealing significantly increases as the track diameter decreases along the ion trajectory from an initial diameter of 8.9 nm to ~ 1.5 nm at the end of the track (total track length ~ 8.1 μm). For the first time, the initial, rapid reduction in etched length during isothermal annealing can be essentially explained by the rapid annealing of the sections of the track with smaller diameters, as observed directly by TEM.

• Research Organization: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Materials Science of Actinides (MSA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE SC Office of Basic Energy Sciences (SC-22)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0001089
• OSTI ID: 1386660
• Journal Information: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Journal Name: Earth and Planetary Science Letters Journal Issue: C Vol. 321-322; ISSN 0012-821X
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
nuclear (including radiation effects)
materials and chemistry by design
synthesis (novel materials)
synthesis (self-assembly)