Depth-resolved thermal conductivity and damage in swift heavy ion irradiated metal oxides

Abdullaev A. Koshkinbayeva A. Chauhan V. Nurekeyev Z. OConnell J. van Vuuren A.J. Skuratov V. Khafizov M. Utegulov Z.N.
1 April 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Journal of Nuclear Materials
2022 #561

We investigated thermal transport in swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiated insulating single crystalline oxide materials: yttrium aluminum garnet- Y₃Al₅O₁₂ (YAG), sapphire (Al₂O₃), zinc oxide (ZnO) and magnesium oxide (MgO) irradiated by 167 MeV Xe ions at 10¹² – 10¹⁴ ions/cm² fluences. Depth profiling of the thermal transport on nano- and micro- meter scales was assessed by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) and modulated thermoreflectance (MTR) methods, respectively. This combination allowed us to isolate the conductivities of different sub-surface damage-regions characterized by their distinct microstructure evolution regimes. Thermal conductivity degradation in SHI irradiated YAG and Al₂O₃ is attributed to formation of ion tracks and subsequent amorphization, while in ZnO and MgO it is mostly due to point defects. Additionally, notably lower conductivity when probed by very low penetrating thermal waves is consistent with surface hillock formation. An analytical model based on Klemens-Callaway method for thermal conductivity coupled with a simplified microstructure evolution capturing saturation in defect concentration was used to obtain depth dependent damage across the ion impacted region. The studies showed that YAG has the highest damage profile resulting in the less dependence of thermal conductivity with the depth, while MgO on the contrary has the strongest dependence. The presented work sheds new light on how SHI induced defects affect thermal transport degradation and recovery of oxide ceramics as promising candidates for next generation nuclear reactor applications.

Amorphization , Ion tracks , Metal oxides , Phonon scattering , Swift heavy ions , Thermal transport

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Department of Physics, School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, OH, United States
Centre for HRTEM, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, 6001, South Africa
Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, 141980, Moscow Region, Russian Federation
National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, 115409, Moscow, Russian Federation
Dubna State University, Dubna, 141980, Moscow Region, Russian Federation

Department of Physics
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Centre for HRTEM
Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions
National Research Nuclear University MEPhI
Dubna State University

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