Multi-scale investigation of heterogeneous swift heavy ion tracks in stannate pyrochlore

Eric C. O'Quinn; Cameron L. Tracy; William F. Cureton; Ritesh Sachan; Joerg C. Neuefeind; Christina Trautmann; Maik K. Lang

doi:10.1039/d1ta04924k

Multi-scale investigation of heterogeneous swift heavy ion tracks in stannate pyrochlore

Eric C. O'Quinn, Cameron L. Tracy, William F. Cureton, Ritesh Sachan, Joerg C. Neuefeind, Christina Trautmann, Maik K. Lang

Powder Diffraction

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Er₂Sn₂O₇pyrochlore was irradiated with swift heavy Au ions (2.2 GeV), and the induced structural modifications were systematically examined using complementary characterization techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and neutron total scattering with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. Each technique probes different aspects and length scales of the transformed material regions. TEM revealed a core-shell ion track structure—an amorphous core surrounded by a disordered, anion-deficient fluorite shell—which was confirmed by XRD. Neutron total scattering, with sensitivity to the oxygen sublattice, provided relative fractions of amorphous and disordered fluorite phases and confirmed the presence of a defective pyrochlore phase, which largely maintains its structural ordering but is clearly distinct from the pristine pyrochlore matrix. This defect-rich pyrochlore phase forms a halo extending radially beyond the well-characterized core-shell track morphology observed in electron micrographs. Despite their differing long-range periodicity, the short-range structures of the amorphous, disordered, and defective pyrochlore phases are all modeled well with a weberite-type configuration. Evolution of the phase fractions with increasing ion fluence was examined to ascertain the phase-to-phase pathways that occur during primary and secondary ion impact. This approach extends knowledge about the multi-scale response of stannate pyrochlores to swift heavy ion irradiation in the electronic energy loss regime and improves existing track-overlap models.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	16982-16997
Number of pages	16
Journal	Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Volume	9
Issue number	31
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ta04924k
State	Published - Aug 21 2021

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award #DE-SC0020321. W. F. C. was funded by an Integrated University Program Graduate Fellowship. The electron microscopic data acquisition in this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. This research at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. The results presented here are based on a UMAT experiment, which was performed at the X0-beamline of the UNILAC at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt (Germany) in the frame of FAIR Phase-0. This work is based upon research conducted at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) which is supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences under NSF Award No. DMR-1332208. The authors express their appreciation to Devon Drey (University of Tennessee) for thoughtful discussion and technical support and anonymous reviewers for constructive remarks which improved this manuscript. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award #DE-SC0020321. W. F. C. was funded by an Integrated University Program Graduate Fellowship. The electron microscopic data acquisition in this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. This research at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientic User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. The results presented here are based on a UMAT experiment, which was performed at the X0-beamline of the UNILAC at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt (Germany) in the frame of FAIR Phase-0. This work is based upon research conducted at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) which is supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences under NSF Award No. DMR-1332208. The authors express their appreciation to Devon Drey (University of Tennessee) for thoughtful discussion and technical support and anonymous reviewers for constructive remarks which improved this manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Scientific User Facilities Division
Scientic User Facilities Division
UNILAC
National Science Foundation	DMR-1332208
National Institutes of Health
U.S. Department of Energy
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences	-SC0020321
University of Tennessee
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung

Access to Document

10.1039/d1ta04924k

Cite this

@article{8d97b6abb8704877a7f4dbe834628535,

title = "Multi-scale investigation of heterogeneous swift heavy ion tracks in stannate pyrochlore",

abstract = "Er2Sn2O7pyrochlore was irradiated with swift heavy Au ions (2.2 GeV), and the induced structural modifications were systematically examined using complementary characterization techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and neutron total scattering with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. Each technique probes different aspects and length scales of the transformed material regions. TEM revealed a core-shell ion track structure—an amorphous core surrounded by a disordered, anion-deficient fluorite shell—which was confirmed by XRD. Neutron total scattering, with sensitivity to the oxygen sublattice, provided relative fractions of amorphous and disordered fluorite phases and confirmed the presence of a defective pyrochlore phase, which largely maintains its structural ordering but is clearly distinct from the pristine pyrochlore matrix. This defect-rich pyrochlore phase forms a halo extending radially beyond the well-characterized core-shell track morphology observed in electron micrographs. Despite their differing long-range periodicity, the short-range structures of the amorphous, disordered, and defective pyrochlore phases are all modeled well with a weberite-type configuration. Evolution of the phase fractions with increasing ion fluence was examined to ascertain the phase-to-phase pathways that occur during primary and secondary ion impact. This approach extends knowledge about the multi-scale response of stannate pyrochlores to swift heavy ion irradiation in the electronic energy loss regime and improves existing track-overlap models.",

author = "O'Quinn, {Eric C.} and Tracy, {Cameron L.} and Cureton, {William F.} and Ritesh Sachan and Neuefeind, {Joerg C.} and Christina Trautmann and Lang, {Maik K.}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021.",

year = "2021",

month = aug,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1039/d1ta04924k",

language = "English",

volume = "9",

pages = "16982--16997",

journal = "Journal of Materials Chemistry A",

issn = "2050-7488",

publisher = "Royal Society of Chemistry",

number = "31",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multi-scale investigation of heterogeneous swift heavy ion tracks in stannate pyrochlore

AU - O'Quinn, Eric C.

AU - Tracy, Cameron L.

AU - Cureton, William F.

AU - Sachan, Ritesh

AU - Neuefeind, Joerg C.

AU - Trautmann, Christina

AU - Lang, Maik K.

PY - 2021/8/21

Y1 - 2021/8/21

N2 - Er2Sn2O7pyrochlore was irradiated with swift heavy Au ions (2.2 GeV), and the induced structural modifications were systematically examined using complementary characterization techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and neutron total scattering with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. Each technique probes different aspects and length scales of the transformed material regions. TEM revealed a core-shell ion track structure—an amorphous core surrounded by a disordered, anion-deficient fluorite shell—which was confirmed by XRD. Neutron total scattering, with sensitivity to the oxygen sublattice, provided relative fractions of amorphous and disordered fluorite phases and confirmed the presence of a defective pyrochlore phase, which largely maintains its structural ordering but is clearly distinct from the pristine pyrochlore matrix. This defect-rich pyrochlore phase forms a halo extending radially beyond the well-characterized core-shell track morphology observed in electron micrographs. Despite their differing long-range periodicity, the short-range structures of the amorphous, disordered, and defective pyrochlore phases are all modeled well with a weberite-type configuration. Evolution of the phase fractions with increasing ion fluence was examined to ascertain the phase-to-phase pathways that occur during primary and secondary ion impact. This approach extends knowledge about the multi-scale response of stannate pyrochlores to swift heavy ion irradiation in the electronic energy loss regime and improves existing track-overlap models.

AB - Er2Sn2O7pyrochlore was irradiated with swift heavy Au ions (2.2 GeV), and the induced structural modifications were systematically examined using complementary characterization techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and neutron total scattering with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. Each technique probes different aspects and length scales of the transformed material regions. TEM revealed a core-shell ion track structure—an amorphous core surrounded by a disordered, anion-deficient fluorite shell—which was confirmed by XRD. Neutron total scattering, with sensitivity to the oxygen sublattice, provided relative fractions of amorphous and disordered fluorite phases and confirmed the presence of a defective pyrochlore phase, which largely maintains its structural ordering but is clearly distinct from the pristine pyrochlore matrix. This defect-rich pyrochlore phase forms a halo extending radially beyond the well-characterized core-shell track morphology observed in electron micrographs. Despite their differing long-range periodicity, the short-range structures of the amorphous, disordered, and defective pyrochlore phases are all modeled well with a weberite-type configuration. Evolution of the phase fractions with increasing ion fluence was examined to ascertain the phase-to-phase pathways that occur during primary and secondary ion impact. This approach extends knowledge about the multi-scale response of stannate pyrochlores to swift heavy ion irradiation in the electronic energy loss regime and improves existing track-overlap models.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112522393&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1039/d1ta04924k

DO - 10.1039/d1ta04924k

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85112522393

SN - 2050-7488

VL - 9

SP - 16982

EP - 16997

JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry A

JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry A

IS - 31

ER -

Multi-scale investigation of heterogeneous swift heavy ion tracks in stannate pyrochlore

Abstract

Funding

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this