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New insights on ion track morphology in pyrochlores by aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2016

Ritesh Sachan Open the ORCID record for Ritesh Sachan [Opens in a new window] ,
Yanwen Zhang ,
Xin Ou Open the ORCID record for Xin Ou [Opens in a new window] ,
Christina Trautmann ,
Matthew F. Chisholm  and
William J. Weber
Ritesh Sachan*
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831
Yanwen Zhang
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; and Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996
Xin Ou
Affiliation:
Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rassendorf, Dresden 01314, Germany
Christina Trautmann
Affiliation:
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt 64291, Germany; and Materialwissenschaft, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt 64287, Germany
Matthew F. Chisholm
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831
William J. Weber
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; and Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: sachanr@ornl.gov
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Abstract

Here, we demonstrate the enhanced imaging capabilities of an aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscope to advance the understanding of ion track structure in pyrochlore structured materials (i.e., Gd2Ti2O7 and Gd2TiZrO7). Track formation occurs due to the inelastic transfer of energy from incident ions to electrons, and atomic-level details of track morphology as a function of energy-loss are revealed in the present work. A comparison of imaging details obtained by varying collection angles of detectors is discussed in the present work. A quantitative analysis of phase identification using high-angle annular dark field imaging is performed on the ion tracks. Finally, a novel 3-dimensional track reconstruction method is provided that is based on depth-dependent imaging of the ion tracks. The technique is used in extracting the atomic-level details of nanoscale features, such as the disordered ion tracks, which are embedded in relatively thicker matrix. Another relevance of the method is shown by measuring the tilt of the ion tracks relative to the electron beam incidence that helps in knowing the structure and geometry of ion tracks quantitatively.

Keywords

energetic ion-irradiationion tracksscanning transmission electron microscopypyrochlore
Type
Review
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 32 , Issue 5: Focus Issue: Aberration Corrected Transmission Electron Microscopy , 14 March 2017 , pp. 928 - 935
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Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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Footnotes

Contributing Editor: Thomas Walther

This section of Journal of Materials Research is reserved for papers that are reviews of literature in a given area.

b)

This author was an editor of this journal during the review and decision stage. For the JMR policy on review and publication of manuscripts authored by editors, please refer to http://www.mrs.org/jmr-editor-manuscripts/.

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