Liquid-like phase formation in Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7} by extremely ionizing irradiation

Journal Article · Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3124370· OSTI ID:21352223

Jiaming, Zhang; Lang, Maik; Ewing, Rodney C ^[1]; Jie, Lian ^[2]; Liu, Jie ^[3]; Trautmann, Christina ^[4]; Della-Negra, Serge ^[5]; Toulemonde, Marcel ^[6]

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1. Departments of Geological Sciences and Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1005 (United States)
2. Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180 (United States)
3. Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China)
4. GSI, Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung, Planckstr.1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany)
5. Institut de Physique Nucleaire (IPN), CNRS-IN2P3, 91406 Orsay (France)
6. Centre de Recherche sur les Ions, les Materiaux et la Photonique, CEA-CNRS-ENSICAEN-Univ. de Caen, 14070 Caen (France)

Isometric Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7} with the ordered, pyrochlore structure has an extremely high resistance to radiation-induced amorphization. Ion-beam irradiations at keV to GeV energies result in a disordered, defect-fluorite structure that remains crystalline to very large fluences. However, we report liquid-like phase formation of droplet-like surface hillocks and quenched molten tracks in Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7}. The extremely high energy density of 12-MeV C{sub 60} clusters creates tracks with substantial volumes of amorphous material, accompanied by the formation of nanocrystals of the disordered, defect-fluorite structure. This is the first evidence of irradiation-induced amorphization of Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7}. In contrast, irradiation of Gd{sub 2}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 7} pyrochlore with swift heavy ions of U resulted in an order-disorder transformation to defect-fluorite without any evidence of amorphization. Thermal-spike calculations highlight the dominance of the effect of deposited energy density, controlled by the projectile velocity, as compared with the energy loss.

• OSTI ID: 21352223
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 105; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
AMORPHOUS STATE
BEAMS
CARBON
CHARGED PARTICLES
DROPLETS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY DENSITY
ENERGY LOSSES
ENERGY RANGE
FLUORITE
FULLERENES
GADOLINIUM COMPOUNDS
GEV RANGE
HALIDE MINERALS
HEAVY IONS
ION BEAMS
IONS
KEV RANGE
LOSSES
MEV RANGE
MINERALS
NANOSTRUCTURES
NONMETALS
ORDER-DISORDER TRANSFORMATIONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PYROCHLORE
RARE EARTH COMPOUNDS
THERMAL SPIKES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
ZIRCONATES
ZIRCONIUM COMPOUNDS