Abstract:
The paper presents the assessment results of the irradiation temperature effect on the change in the type of
structural defects caused by irradiation with helium ions in the near-surface layer of Li2ZrO3 ceramics, as well as
determining the nature of structural damage using the electron paramagnetic resonance method in the case of
irradiation fluence variation. During characterization of the structural changes caused by helium ion irradiation,
the main attention was paid to detailing the type of structural defects and radiolysis products arising during
irradiation, alongside alterations in their concentration using the electron paramagnetic resonance method.
During the experiments, it was determined that the observed effects of thermally stimulated mobility of vacancy
defects in the damaged layer caused by irradiation with helium ions indicate a positive effect of thermal heating
of samples during irradiation at low fluences. This effect consists in a decline in the number of oxygen vacancies
in the damaged layer at low irradiation fluences (1015–1016 cm− 2
), the concentration of which was determined
using the EPR method, and the observed structural changes at low irradiation fluences in the case of an elevation
in irradiation temperatures are associated with deformation distortion of the crystalline structure of ceramics
caused by transformation energy processes, and thermal expansion effects.
