Nanocavity formation processes in MgO( [formula omitted]) by light ion (D, He, Li) and heavy ion (Kr, Cu, Au) implantation

Abstract

In studies on the controlled growth of metallic precipitates in MgO it is attempted to use nanometer size cavities as precursors for formation of metallic precipitates. In MgO nanocavities can easily be generated by light gas ion bombardment at room temperature with typically 30 keV ion energy to a dose of 10 16 cm −2, followed by annealing to 1300 K. It has been shown earlier by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) that the cavities (thickness 2–3 nm and length/width 5–10 nm) have a perfectly rectangular shape bounded by {1 0 0} faces. The majority of the gas has been released at this temperature and the cavities are stable until annealing at 1500 K. The depth location of the cavities and the implanted ions is monitored by positron beam analysis, neutron depth profiling, RBS/channeling and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The presence of metallic nanoprecipitates is detected by optical absorption measurements and by high-resolution XTEM. Surprisingly, all the metallic implants induce, in addition to metallic precipitates in a band at the mean ion range, small rectangular and cubic nanocavities. These are most clearly observed at a depth shallower than the precipitate band. In the case of gold the cavities are produced in close proximity to the crystal surface. The results indicate that in MgO vacancy clustering dominates over Frenkel-pair recombination. Results of molecular dynamics calculations will be used to discuss the observed defect recovery and clustering processes in MgO.