Radiation damage, its recovery and platinum lattice location in Pb-bombarded MgO

Abstract

MgO single crystals of (100) orientation implanted with 30 keV Pt ions to doses of 9*10¹⁵ and 8*10¹⁶ ions cm^-2 were analysed following bombardment and different annealing treatments using channelling and back-scattering techniques. The MgO single crystals did not become amorphous and the lattice disorder reached the saturation level after implantation with the lower dose. Damage recovery proceeded progressively with increasing temperature and was not complete before 1300 degrees C/2h were reached. The channelling experiment revealed also that the near-surface Pt showed its own steering properties leading to the unexpected result that the critical angles of the impurity (1.1 degrees ) and of the host lattice (0.65 degrees ) were different. This can be explained by coherent precipitation of Pt and this was confirmed by X-ray analysis.