aCEA Saclay, DSM/DRECAM/SPCSI, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
bLaboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris Sud, Bât. 510, F-91405 Orsay, France
cCEA Saclay, DEN/DMN/SRMA, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Abstract:
A study performed with a dedicated scanning electron microscope (SEM) on the surface electrical properties of (1 0 0)-oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) single crystals irradiated with 1 MeV electrons is presented. When compared with virgin YSZ, the 1 MeV-irradiated YSZ shows a decrease of the intrinsic total electron emission coefficient σ0 and an increase of the time constant τ associated with the charging kinetics of the material at room temperature. These measurements performed with the SEM beam at 10 keV indicate that the defects induced by the 1 MeV-electron irradiation generate a positive electric field of the order of 0.5 × 106 V/m at a depth of about 1 μm that prevents electrons to escape. When the SEM beam with a 1.1 keV energy is used, a smaller field (0.5 × 103 V/m) is detected closer to the surface (20 nm). The fading of these fields during the thermal annealing in the 400–1000 K temperature range provides information on the nature of defects induced by the 1 MeV-electron irradiation.