Damage induced by electronic excitation in ion-irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia

This article presents a study of the damage production in yttria-stabilized cubic zirconia single crystals irradiated with swift heavy ions. The combination of techniques which probe the material at different spatial scales (Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling geometry, x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy) was used in order to gain information about the damage depth distribution, the disordering buildup, the nature of radiation defects, and the occurrence of microstructural modifications. The damage results from the formation of tracks, due to the huge electronic excitations induced in the wake of incident ions. The melting of the material in the core of tracks, via a thermal spike mechanism, leads to the creation of large hillocks at the surface of the crystals. The overlapping of ion tracks at high fluence (above ∼1012 cm−2) induces a severe transformation of the microstructure of the material. Nanodomains slightly disoriented from the main crystallographic direction are formed, with a size decreasing with increasing irradiation fluence. These results may be used to predict the damage evolution in other nonamorphizable ceramics irradiated with swift heavy ions.