Latent ion tracks were finally observed in diamond.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38413643.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-45934-4 and PMC identifier 10899563.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Injecting high-energy heavy ions in the electronic stopping regime into solids can create cylindrical damage zones called latent ion tracks. Although these tracks form in many materials, none have ever been observed in diamond, even when irradiated with high-energy GeV uranium ions. Here we report the first observation of ion track formation in diamond irradiated with 2-9 MeV C<sub>60</sub> fullerene ions. Depending on the ion energy, the mean track length (diameter) changed from 17 (3.2) nm to 52 (7.1) nm. High resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HR-STEM) indicated the amorphization in the tracks, in which π-bonding signal from graphite was detected by the electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Since the melting transition is not induced in diamond at atmospheric pressure, conventional inelastic thermal spike calculations cannot be applied. Two-temperature molecular dynamics simulations succeeded in the reproduction of both the track formation under MeV C<sub>60</sub> irradiations and the no-track formation under GeV monoatomic ion irradiations.