Composition and structure of zirconium implanted with nitrogen at high fluence

Abstract

High-fluence implantations of 100 keV N 2 + ion into a zirconium layer deposited by an electron beam were carried out at room temperature and at liquid-nitrogen temperature with and without nitrogen gas of a pressure of 1 × 10 −4 Torr. Depth profiles of atom concentrations were determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, Auger electron spectroscopy, and resonance nuclear reaction analysis. The experimental results were compared with the theoretical results obtained by Monte Carlo simulations of the dynamic-SASAMAL code. The depth profiles measured by RBS agreed well with the calculated profiles for all fluences from 1 × 10 17 to 5 × 10 17 ions/cm 2, but differed from those obtained by AES indicating the existence of easily released nitrogen in the Zr specimen implanted with nitrogen at high fluence. Glancing angle X-ray diffraction was used to confirm zirconium nitride formation.