Raman spectrum study of graphite irradiated by swift heavy ions

Abstract

Highly oriented pyrolytic graphites are irradiated with 40.5-MeV and 67.7-MeV 112Sn-ions in a wide range of fluences: 1 × 1011 ions/cm2−1 × 1014 ions/cm2. Raman spectra in the region between 1200 cm−1 and 3500 cm−1 show that the disorder induced by Sn-ions increases with ion fluence increasing. However, for the same fluence, the amount of disorder is greater for 40.5-MeV Sn-ions than that observed for 67.7-MeV Sn-ions, even though the latter has a slightly higher value for electronic energy loss. This is explained by the ion velocity effect. Importantly, ∼ 3-cm−1 frequency shift toward lower wavenumber for the D band and ∼ 6-cm−1 shift toward lower wavenumber for the 2D band are observed at a fluence of 1 × 1014 ions/cm2, which is consistent with the scenario of radiation-induced strain. The strain formation is interpreted in the context of inelastic thermal spike model, and the change of the 2D band shape at high ion fluence is explained by the accumulation of stacking faults of the graphene layers activated by radiation-induced strain around ion tracks. Moreover, the hexagonal structure around the ion tracks is observed by scanning tunneling microscopy, which confirms that the strains near the ion tracks locally cause electronic decoupling of neighboring graphene layers.