Damage along swift heavy ion trajectory

RA Rymzhanov and SA Gorbunov and N Medvedev and AE Volkov, NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION B-BEAM INTERACTIONS WITH MATERIALS AND ATOMS, 440, 25-35 (2019).

DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2018.11.034

A swift heavy ion leaves a damaged trail (SHI track) while penetrating through a solid. The radius of the track depends on the ion energy loss and velocity, and thereby on its penetration depth. Applying developed Monte Carlo code TREKIS and molecular dynamics approach we describe the damage distribution along the trajectory of an SHI (Xe and U) in olivine. This enables us to obtain the dependencies of the track radius and structure on the ion energy and its energy losses, as well as to identify the track formation thresholds in forsterite (Mg2SiO4) for fast and slow ions. It is found that the position of the maximal damage produced by an ion in a solid does not coincide with the Bragg peak of its electronic stopping. Loop-like dependence of the track radius on the electronic energy loss is identified.

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