Preparation of Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Ar targets by ion implantation into thin carbon foils

The preparation of isotopically pure targets of ²⁰Ne, ²⁴Mg, ²⁸Si, ³²S, and ³⁶Ar by the implantation of 25-70 keV ions into carbon foils is described.     

The interaction of antihydrogen with simple atoms and molecules

In this paper, we describe calculations that we have carried out of cross sections for rearrangement processes in very low-energy helium + antihydrogen scattering that result in or or . A significantly more accurate method from that used previously [E.A.G. Armour, S. Jonsell, Y. Liu, A.C. Todd, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B 247 (2006) 127] is used to calculate the entrance channel wave function. Results are presented for the first two processes. Mention is made of the use of the method in calculations of low-energy e⁺H₂ scattering.     

Morphology and interface structure of α-Fe2O3 islands grown on sapphire by ion-implantation and annealing

The morphology and interface structure of α-Fe₂O₃ islands grown on α-Al₂O₃ single crystals (sapphire) by Fe-ion-implantation and annealing in an oxidizing atmosphere have been studied using transmission electron microscopy. The α-Fe₂O₃ islands have the orientation relationship of and with sapphire. The typical outline of α-Fe₂O₃ islands consists of two (0 0 0 1) and six planes. The interfaces between α-Fe₂O₃ islands and sapphire are semicoherent, that is coherent regions separated by misfit dislocations at the interfaces. When imaged along the direction, the projected Burgers vector is determined to be . When imaged along the direction, the projected Burgers vector is determined to be . These misfit dislocations form a network structure at the interface to accommodate the mismatch between the lattices of the α-Fe₂O₃ and the α-Al₂O₃.     

Temperature dependence of damage formation in Ag ion irradiated 4H-SiC

Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) in channelling mode was used to study the defect formation in silver (Ag) ion irradiated silicon carbide (SiC). The 4H-SiC samples were irradiated with 360 keV Ag ions at different temperatures (15, 295, 375, 475, 625 and 875 K) over a wide range of fluences (1×10¹¹ to , depending on the irradiation temperature). The results can be divided into two groups: (i) for irradiation temperatures between 15 and 475 K amorphisation of the implanted layers is reached for ion fluences between 7×10¹³ and . The over-all cross-section of defect production at very low ion fluences which comprises the formation of point defects and of amorphous clusters, is almost identical for all data sets measured in this temperature range. Differences in the damage evolution which occur at higher ion fluences, suggest that the relative contribution of amorphous clusters within single ion impacts in crystalline material decreases with rising temperature. (ii) For irradiations performed at 625 and 875 K no amorphisation is found for ion fluences as high as . With increasing ion fluence the defect concentration exhibits a distinctive plateau due to the balance between formation and recombination of point defects before increasing up to a saturation level well below amorphisation. For this final stage our results indicate a mixture of point defect clusters and extended defects most probably dislocations. A comparison with data from the literature suggests that the damage evolution for implantation at 625 and 875 K is strongly influenced by the mobility of vacancies starting at around 600 K.     

Effects of the radiative recombination on the intensity and polarization of the Ly-α emission of hydrogen-like ions

The intensity ratio of the to photon emission is analyzed for hydrogen-like Fe²⁵⁺ ions if their excitation arises in a plasma not only from the electron impact but also due to the radiative recombination (RR) of initially bare Fe²⁶⁺ ions. Under such conditions, the intensity ratio and the (degree of) linear polarization of the Ly-α₁ line are explored for collisions with an electron beam over a wide range of kinetic energies up to 50 keV. Apart from the direct population of the 2p_1/2,3/2 levels via the RR of bare ions, the contributions from radiative cascades and higher multipoles are taken into account by applying a fully relativistic theory for the motion of the electrons and the electron-photon coupling. Our calculations show an overall small effect of the RR upon the degree of the Ly-α₁ polarization as well as the intensity ratio under usual plasma conditions. However, the effects from the RR of initially bare ions may become significant at electron beam energies , for plasma conditions far away from ionization equilibrium with a relatively large proportion of bare Fe ions, as it may be realized in electron-beam ion trap experiments.     

Development of secondary ion mass spectroscopy using medium energy C60 ion impact

In this paper, we report time-of-flight (TOF) secondary ion mass spectroscopy using primary C₆₀ ions with an energy range from several tens of keV to several hundreds of keV. Application of the spectroscopy to the analysis of a poly(amino acid) film revealed that characteristic peaks, necessary for identification of the amino acid in proteins, show higher intensities for medium energy C₆₀ (120 keV and 540 keV ) impacts than those for low energy C₆₀ (30 keV ) impacts. This finding demonstrates that medium energy C₆₀ ion impacts are useful for highly sensitive characterization of amino acids.     

Atomistic simulations of nanometric dislocation loops in bcc tungsten

Small dislocation loops formed from self-interstitial atoms (SIAs) are commonly found in irradiated metals. These defects significantly influence the mechanical properties of the materials. Atomistic simulations are used to describe nanometric circular dislocation loops with Burger’s vectors , and in bcc tungsten. Particular attention is paid to the habit plane of the loop. Two different embedded atom model (EAM) potentials are used. The energetics and geometry of the loops are studied as a function of their size.     

First principle studies on the electronic structures and absorption spectra in KMgF3 crystal with fluorine vacancy

The experiments indicate that the perfect KMgF₃ crystal has no absorption in the visible range, however the electron irradiation induces a complex absorption spectrum. The absorption spectra can be decomposed by five Gaussian bands peaking at 2.5 eV (488 nm), 3.4 eV (359 nm), 4.2 eV (295 nm), 4.6 eV (270 nm) and 5.2 eV (239 nm), respectively. The purpose of this paper is to seek the origins of the absorption bands. The electronic structures and absorption spectra either for the perfect KMgF₃ or for KMgF₃: with electrical neutrality have been studied by using density functional theory code CASTEP with the lattice structure optimized. The calculation results predicate that KMgF₃: also exhibits five absorption bands caused by the existence of the fluorine ion vacancy and the five absorption bands well coincide with the experimental results. It is believable that the five absorption bands are related to in KMgF₃ crystal produced by the electron irradiation.     

First-principles study on electronic structures and absorption spectra for BaWO4 crystal containing barium vacancy

The electronic structures, dielectric function and absorption spectra for the perfect BaWO₄ (BWO) crystal and the BWO crystal containing barium vacancy () have been studied using density functional theory code CASTEP with the lattice structure optimized. The results indicate that the optical properties of the BWO crystal exhibit anisotropy and its optical symmetry coincide with lattice structure geometry of the BWO crystal. For the BWO crystal containing , there exhibit four absorption bands peaking at 0.71 eV (1751 nm), 1.85 eV (672 nm), 3.43 eV (362 nm) and 3.85 eV (322 nm), respectively. The origins of the 370 nm absorption band should be related to the .     

Study of the electronic structures of oxygen doped in LiBaF3 crystal

The most likely substituting positions of impurity oxygen ions in LiBaF₃ crystals are studied using the general utility lattice program (GULP). The calculated results indicate that the main defect model is [] in the O:LiBaF₃ crystal. The electronic structures of the LiBaF₃ crystal with the defect [] are calculated using the DV-Xα method. It can be concluded from the electronic structures that the LiBaF₃ crystal with the defect [] will exhibit a 217-280 nm absorption band and the impurity oxygen will decrease core-valence luminescence yield.     

Ion implantation in 4H-SiC

Silicon carbide offers unique applications as a wide bandgap semiconductor. This paper reviews various aspects of ion implantation in 4H-SiC studied with a view to optimise ion implantation in silicon carbide. Al, P and Si ions with keV energies were used. Channelling effects were studied in both a-axis and c-axis crystals as a function of tilts along major orthogonal planes and off the major orthogonal planes. Major axes such as [0 0 0 1] and the and minor axis like the showed long channelling tails and optimum tilts for minimising channelling are recommended. TEM analyses of the samples showed the formation of (0 0 0 1) prismatic loops and the loops as well,in both a and c-cut crystals. We also note the presence of voids only in P implanted samples implanted with amorphising doses. The competing process between damage accumulation and dynamic annealing was studied by determining the critical temperature for the transition between crystalline and amorphous SiC and an activation energy of 1.3 eV is extracted.     

Estimation of equilibrium surface precipitation constants for trivalent metal sorption onto hydrous ferric oxide and calcite

Equilibrium constants for modeling surface precipitation of trivalent metal cations (M³⁺) onto hydrous ferric oxide and calcite were estimated from linear correlations of standard state Gibbs free energies of formation, () of the surface precipitates. The surface precipitation reactions were derived from Farley et. al. [K.J. Farley, D.A. Dzombak, F.M.M. Morel, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 106 (1985) 226] surface precipitation model, which are based on surface complexation model coupled with solid solution representation for surface precipitation on the solid surface. The values were correlated through the following linear free energy relations and where ‘ss’ stands for the end-member solid component of surface precipitate, is in kJ/mol, r_M³⁺ is the Shannon-Prewitt radius of M³⁺ in a given coordination state (nm), and is the non-solvation contribution to the Gibbs free energy of formation of the aqueous M³⁺ ion. Results indicate that the above surface precipitation correlations are useful tools where experimental data are not available.     

Measurement of radiation-enhanced diffusion of La in single crystal thin film CeO2

The diffusion of La, a trivalent cation dopant, actinide surrogate, and high-yield fission product, in CeO₂, a UO₂ nuclear fuel surrogate, during 1.8 MeV Kr⁺ ion bombardment over a temperature range from 673 K to 1206 K has been measured with secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The diffusivity under these irradiation conditions has been analyzed with a model based on a combination of sink-limited and recombination-limited kinetics. This analysis yielded a cation vacancy migration energy of  ∼ 0.4 eV below ∼800 K, were recombination-limited kinetics dominated the behavior. The thermal diffusivity of La in the same system was measured over a range of 873-1073 K and was characterized by an activation enthalpy of . The measurement of both the migration enthalpy and total activation enthalpy separately allows the vacancy formation enthalpy on the cation sublattice to be determined;  ∼ 1 eV. The mixing parameter under energetic heavy-ion bombardment at room temperature was measured as well and found to be ∼4 × 10⁻⁵ nm⁵/eV.     

Stability and delayed fragmentation of highly charged C60 trapped in a conic-electrode electrostatic ion resonator (ConeTrap)

We employed a conic-electrode electrostatic ion resonator (ConeTrap) to store the recoil ions resulting from collision between 56 keV Ar⁸⁺ ions and C₆₀ in order to study their stability over a long time range (several milliseconds). The originality of our method, based on the trapping of a single ion to preserve the detection in coincidence of all the products of the collision, is presented in detail. Our results show that C₆₀ ions produced in such collisions are stable in the considered observation time. By employing the ConeTrap as a secondary mass spectrometer in order to let the ions oscillate only for a single period, we have been able to observe delayed evaporation of cold ions 20 μs after the collision. We interpret quantitatively the relative yields of daughter ions with a cascade model in which the transition rates are estimated via the commonly used Arrhenius law, taking into account the contribution of the radiative decay.