Ion irradiation effects in natural garnets: Comparison with zircon

S. Utsunomiya, L. M. Wang, Rod C. Ewing

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The behavior of garnet (A3B2 (XO4)3; Ia3d; Z = 8) under ion-beam irradiation was investigated in order to compare its radiation susceptibility to another orthosilicate: zircon, ZrSiO4. Five natural end-member compositions were examined by in situ transmission electron microscopy during irradiation with 1.0 MeV Kr2+ over the temperature range of 50-1070 K. The critical amorphization temperature, above which amorphization does not occur, was 1030 K for andradite, but could not be determined for the other garnet composition because the Tc was higher than the highest temperature of the experiment. Based on topologic criterion, the degree of structural freedom in garnet is ∼-2.25 and for zircon ∼-1.5. Based on topology the critical amorphization dose for garnet should be higher than that of zircon; however, the average amorphization dose of garnet (0.20 dpa) is lower than that of zircon (0.37 dpa) at room temperature. This may be the result of the assumed value for the displacement energies, Ed, used in the calculation of dpa. Garnet did not decompose, while zircon decomposes to SiO2 + ZrO2 during the ion irradiation at high temperature. This behavior may be related to the phase relations of garnet which melts congruently and zircon which decomposes to ZrO2 + SiO2.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)600-605
Number of pages6
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Volume191
Issue number1-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2002
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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