Amorphization kinetics in strontium titanate at 16 and 300 K under argon ion irradiation

• Published in: Journal of materials science 2019-04, Vol.54 (8), p.6066-6072
• Main Authors: Velişa, Gihan, Wendler, Elke, Wang, Liang-Ling, Zhang, Yanwen, Weber, William J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amorphization; Argon; Argon ions; Backscattering; Ceramics; Channeling; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Classical Mechanics; Clustering; Crystal defects; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Damage accumulation; Fluence; Ion irradiation; MATERIALS SCIENCE; Point defects; Polymer Sciences; Radiation damage; Single crystals; Solid Mechanics; Spectroscopy; Strontium; Strontium compounds; Strontium titanates
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-018-03313-7

The accumulation of irradiation-induced disorder in SrTiO 3 single crystals irradiated at 16 K with 200 keV Ar ions has been investigated using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry along the 〈100〉 channeling direction and compared with previous results obtained at 300 K under identical irradiation conditions. As expected, amorphization at 16 K occurs at a much lower fluence than at 300 K due to dynamic recovery of irradiation-induced defects at 300 K. Utilizing a comprehensive damage accumulation model for analysis of the data, irradiation at 16 K results only in the formation of point defects and amorphous pockets, while defect clusters are also formed at 300 K. High defect mobility under irradiation at 300 K tends to promote recombination and clustering of point defects. These results suggest that defect diffusion processes in SrTiO 3 are not thermally active at 16 K.