TEM observations of iron and nickel foils irradiated by MeV fullerenes at room temperature

Abstract

It is shown that a new specific effect takes place in iron during irradiation with ∼10 MeV fullerene beams. A dislocation line with various shapes is observed in the close vicinity of the projectile path leading to a strain field confined inside a 20–40 nm diameter “cylinder”. Similarly to previous observations in titanium and zirconium (Dammak et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 74 (1995) 1135), this effect might be due to the strong localisation of the energy deposited during the projectile slowing-down process. However no damage is observable in nickel irradiated in the same conditions. These results should be explained by the previously established relation between the sensitivity of a metal to a high rate of energy deposition in electronic excitations and the existence of a high pressure phase in the pressure-temperature phase diagram (Dammak et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B 107 (1996) 204).