Time-resolved electron kinetics in swift heavy ion irradiated solids

Abstract

The event-by-event Monte Carlo model, TREKIS, was developed to describe the excitation of the electron subsystems of various solids by a penetrating swift heavy ion (SHI), the spatial spreading of generated fast electrons, and secondary electron and hole cascades. Complex dielectric function formalism is used to obtain relevant cross sections. This allows the recognition of fundamental effects resulting from the collective response of the electron subsystem of a target for excitation that is not possible within the binary collision approximation of these cross sections, e.g. the differences in the electronic stopping of an ion and in the electron mean free paths for different structures (phases) of a material. A systematic study performed with this model for different materials (insulators, semiconductors and metals) revealed effects which may be important for an ion track: e.g. the appearance of a second front of excess electronic energy propagation outwards from the track core following the primary front of spreading of generated electrons. We also analyze how the initial ballistic spatial spreading of fast electrons generated in a track turns to the diffusion ~10 fs after ion passage. Detailed time-resolved simulations of electronic subsystem kinetics helped in understanding the reasons behind enhanced silicon resistance to SHI irradiation in contrast to easily produced damage in this material by femtosecond laser pulses. We demonstrate that the fast spreading of excited electrons from the track core on a sub-100 fs timescale prevents the Si lattice from nonthermal melting in a relaxing SHI track.