Modeling and X-ray Analysis of Defect Nanoclusters Formation in B4C under Ion Irradiation

Matlab N Mirzayev; Alexander A Donkov; Evgeni A Popov; Ertugrul Demir; Sakin H Jabarov; Levan S Chkhartishvili; Samuel A Adeojo; Aleksandr S Doroshkevich; Alexey A Sidorin; Asif G Asadov; Thabsile T Thabethe; Mayeen U Khandaker; Sultan Alamri; Hamid Osman; Alex V Trukhanov; Sergei V Trukhanov

doi:10.3390/nano12152644

Modeling and X-ray Analysis of Defect Nanoclusters Formation in B₄C under Ion Irradiation

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jul 31;12(15):2644. doi: 10.3390/nano12152644.

Authors

Matlab N Mirzayev^{1

2

3}, Alexander A Donkov^{3

4}, Evgeni A Popov^{3

4

5}, Ertugrul Demir⁶, Sakin H Jabarov¹, Levan S Chkhartishvili^{7

8}, Samuel A Adeojo⁹, Aleksandr S Doroshkevich^{3

10}, Alexey A Sidorin³, Asif G Asadov^{3

11}, Thabsile T Thabethe⁹, Mayeen U Khandaker^{12

13}, Sultan Alamri¹⁴, Hamid Osman¹⁴, Alex V Trukhanov^{15

16}, Sergei V Trukhanov^{15

16}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Radiation Problems, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku AZ-1143, Azerbaijan.
² Scientific-Research Institute Geotecnological Problems of Oil, Gas and Chemistry, Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, Baku AZ-1010, Azerbaijan.
³ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna 141980, Russia.
⁴ Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria.
⁵ Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria.
⁶ Physics Department, Yeditepe University, Istanbul 34755, Turkey.
⁷ Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi, 77, Kostava Str., 0160, Georgia.
⁸ Ferdinand Tavadze Metallurgy and Materials Science Institute, Tbilisi, 8b, E. Mindeli St., 0186, Georgia.
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
¹⁰ Donetsk Institute for Physics and Engineering Named after O.O. Galkin NAS of Ukraine, 03028 Kyiv, Ukraine.
¹¹ Institute of Physics, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku AZ-1143, Azerbaijan.
¹² Centre for Applied Physics and Radiation Technologies, School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway 47500, Malaysia.
¹³ Department of General Educational Development, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Daffodil International University, DIU Rd, Dhaka 1341, Bangladesh.
¹⁴ Radiological Sciences Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁵ Laboratory of Magnetic Films Physics, SSPA "Scientific and Practical Materials Research Centre of NAS of Belarus", 19, P. Brovki str., 220072 Minsk, Belarus.
¹⁶ Smart Sensors Laboratory, Department of Electronic Materials Technology, National University of Science and Technology MISiS, 119049 Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

In the presented work, B₄C was irradiated with xenon swift heavy ions at the energy of 167 MeV. The irradiation of the substrate was done at room temperature to a fluence of 3.83 × 10¹⁴ ion/cm². The samples were then analyzed with the X-ray diffraction technique to study the structural modification, as it can probe the region of penetration of xenon atoms due to the low atomic number of the two elements involved in the material under study. The nano-cluster formation under ion irradiation was observed. Positron lifetime (PLT) calculations of the secondary point defects forming nanoclusters and introduced into the B₄C substrate by hydrogen and helium implantation were also carried out with the Multigrid instead of the K-spAce (MIKA) simulation package. The X-ray diffraction results confirmed that the sample was B₄C and it had a rhombohedral crystal structure. The X-ray diffraction indicated an increase in the lattice parameter due to the Swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation. In B₁₂-CCC, the difference between τ with the saturation of H or He in the defect is nearly 20 ps. Under the same conditions with B₁₁C-CBC, there is approximately twice the value for the same deviation.

Keywords: PLT; TCDFT; boron carbide; defect formation; defect vacancies.

Grants and funding

A.A.D. and E.A.P. acknowledge support by the Grant of Plenipotentiary Representative of Republic of Bulgaria at JINR. We also deeply acknowledge Taif University for supporting the researchers through Taif University Researchers Supporting Project number (TURSP-2020/287), Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia. Alex V. Trukhanov thanks NUST MISIS for support within the framework of the «Priority 2030» (K6-2022-043).