The evolution of bombardment-induced damage in fully-stabilized (Y, Ca, Er) cubic zirconia and in pure non-stabilized monoclinic zirconia was investigated by using Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry, ion-channelling, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Fully-stabilized crystals were bombarded with 340 to 400keV Xe2+ ions at 170 to 300K, or with 72MeV 127I+ ions at 300 to 1170K. No amorphization was detected under any of the irradiation conditions although, in the case of 72MeV 127I+ ion bombardment, the resultant defect microstructure was observed to produce dechannelling effects which reached the random level. Damage accumulation during the Xe-ion bombardment of fully-stabilized crystals was found to occur in 3 stages. These were the formation of isolated defect clusters, a transition stage in which the damage increased rapidly over a small range of ion doses (due to the linking of dislocations defect clusters) and a saturation stage in which the damage accumulation was retarded - or increased only slowly - with ion dose. The composition of the fully-stabilized crystals did not appear to affect the dose-dependences of these damage stages significantly. Non-stabilized monoclinic material was observed to transform to a higher-symmetry tetragonal or cubic phase upon 340keV Xe2+ ion bombardment to fluences of more than 5 x 1018/m2 (2dpa) at 120K. This transformation was accompanied by a densification of 5%. No amorphization of the pure material was observed after Xe2+ ion fluences as high as 680dpa.

Radiation Damage Effects in Zirconia. K.E.Sickafus, H.Matzke, T.Hartmann, K.Yasuda, J.A.Valdez, P.Chodak, M.Nastasi, R.A.Verrall: Journal of Nuclear Materials, 1999, 274[1-2], 66-77