Formation of preferred orientations in aluminum, copper, and nickel irradiated with intense ion beams

Abstract

The formation of preferred orientations in metal targets under exposure to intense ion beams was studied using x-ray diffraction. The formation of axial textures with [111] and [100] axes, observed in aluminum, copper, and nickel samples, depends on both the ion current density and thermal characteristics of the target material. In the case of rapid propagation of the thermal front to the material depth, the texture is apparently formed by the dislocation mechanism, which occurs in copper samples having the highest thermal conductivity. For aluminum and nickel, the most probable are recrystallization and regrowth mechanisms, respectively. An analysis of inverse pole figures showed that the main direction of heat sink in textured samples corresponds to the normal to the (111) atomic plane.