AOFSRR 2015 in conjunction with User Meeting 2015

Characterisation of Ion Tracks using Small Angle Scattering

27 Nov 2015, 14:15

30m

Oliphant Auditorium ()

Oral Advanced Materials Advanced Materials III

Speaker

Dr Patrick Kluth (Australian National University)

Description

Ion tracks are narrow trails of permanent damage generated along the paths of highly energetic heavy ions. These tracks are generally between 5-10 nm in diameter and can be tens of micrometers long. They have applications in many disciplines including materials science and engineering, nuclear physics, geochronology, archaeology, and interplanetary science. If generated in an accelerator, an ensemble of ion tracks comprises parallel, (almost) identical nano-sized objects with negligible overlap. Due to their high monodispersity, small angle scattering, albeit measuring typically ~10$^7$ ion tracks, can yield information about the individual track structure averaging out fluctuations on an atomic level. Parallel alignment and stochastic distribution of the tracks reduces the analysis to simple form-factor scattering, yet due to their high aspect the ‘small angle approximation’ is no longer valid. Over the last years we have demonstrated that SAS can resolve details of ion tracks in many materials inaccessible to other techniques [e.g. see 1-3]. This includes implementation of innovative capabilities at the Australian Synchrotron SAXS/WAXS beamline, including the use of diamond anvil cells in combination with in situ annealing to study ion track recovery of minerals under high pressure. More recently we developed a Monte-Carlo code to calculate scattering from complex track morphologies. This presentation will give an overview of our work on ion tracks highlighting the new capabilities we have developed. 1. Phys. Rev B **90** (2014) 224108 2. Phys. Rev. Lett. **101** (2008) 175503 3. Phys. Rev. Lett. **110** (2013) 245502