Journal of Electron Microscopy 51:S211-S214 (2002)
© 2002 Oxford University Press
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Dynamic process of nano-structured inert gas precipitates introduced with ion implantation in aluminium
National Institute for Materials Science, Sakura 3-13, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0003 Japan
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Minghui.SONG{at}nims.go.jp
Inert gas ions of Xe, Ar and Ne were implanted into Al at room temperature in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The growth processes and the structure of inert gas precipitates were studied with conventional and high-resolution TEM (CTEM and HRTEM). Implanted Xe ions begin to segregate to atomic clusters and crystalline precipitates at a dose of
1.0x1018 ions m-2 at a flux of 3.0x1016 ions m-2 s-1. The smallest size of the crystalline precipitates is
2.0 nm, observed with both the CTEM and HRTEM. The Xe precipitates have sizes ranging from
2.0 to 10 nm in specimens implanted with Xe to a dose of 5x1019 ions m-2. The precipitates larger than
6 nm are usually in a non-crystalline state, but the maximum size of crystalline precipitates also depends on the surrounding environment. Analysis of the growth dynamics of Xe, Ar and Ne precipitates suggests that super-saturation, dissolving of clusters and precipitates take place during the implantation, and that these processes make the growth of the precipitates dependent on the implanted dose in a non-linear way. The smaller the size of the implanted ion, the greater this tendency.
Keywords aluminium, implantation, segregation, TEM, inert gas inclusions