<title>Chemical modifications induced in swift heavy ion-irradiated polymers</title>

Abstract

Swift heavy ions (SHI) have velocities around or above the velocity of K-shell electrons, which corresponds to energies ranging from a few MeV/amu to about 100 MeV/amu. They interact with matter mainly by inelastic collision processes leading to ionization of the target atoms and excitations of the target electrons: Nearly all of the SHI energy is lost in the electronic stopping power (dE/dx)e range. Most of the work concerning SHI effects in materials concern biological matter and materials insensitive to radiation damage processes such as metals or metallic oxides. On the contrary, few studies have been published concerning high (dE/dx)e effects in radiolysis sensitive materials such as polymers. This contribution deals with the chemical effects induced by SHI in polymers, but also other fluorinated polymers, polyethylene, polystyrene. Several kind of defects are created. The influence of irradiation parameters is presented. Different evolutions when (dE/dx)e increases is observed. Some defects are specific of SHI and thus appear only at high (dE/dx)e. Some see the yield of creation increased on high (dX/dx)e while others are so easily formed that increasing the (dE/dx)e does not affect their yield.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.