Damage accumulation and thermal recovery processes were investigated, in (100) single crystals which had been bombarded with 1MeV Au2+, by means of in situ Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry channelling. The samples were bombarded, at 170 and 300K, to fluences ranging from 0.1 to 0.4/nm2. The in situ Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry channelling analysis indicated that the relative disorder exhibited a strong sigmoidal dependence upon ion dose. For a fluence of 0.3/nm2 at 170K, the buried region at the damage peak (60nm) became fully amorphous. This corresponded to a dose of 0.8dpa. For bombardment at 300K, a fluence of 0.4/nm2 (1.1dpa) was necessary in order to obtain an amorphous state at the damage peak. An analysis of the defect de-channelling factor suggested that the irradiated regions consisted mostly of interstitial atoms or amorphous clusters. Thermal annealing experiments were performed in situ in order to study damage recovery processes at up to 870K. Thermal recovery processes occurred over a broad temperature range, and the disorder which was created by low fluences (0.1 to 0.27/nm2) was almost completely recovered upon annealing at 870K.

Accumulation and Thermal Recovery of Disorder in Au2+-Irradiated SrTiO3. S.Thevuthasan, W.Jiang, V.Shutthanandan, W.J.Weber: Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2001, 289[1-2], 204-9