External irradiation with heavy ions of neodymium silicate apatite ceramics and glass-ceramics

This work aims at comparing the damage induced in the Nd silicate apatite ceramic (Ca₂Nd₈(SiO₄)₆O₂) by medium energy (ME) and swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiations to evaluate the effects of nuclear collisions and intense electronic excitations for ME ions and SHI ions respectively. The macroscopic induced changes were studied as a function of the fluence by swelling and hardness measurements, whereas structural modifications were followed by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and grazing incidence EXAFS (Nd L₃-edge). At ME (1.9-6.75 MeV Au ions), radiation-induced amorphization occurred above 6.22 × 10¹³ Au/cm² associated with a volume expansion of about 8% and a drop of 37% in hardness. At SHI (90 MeV Xe ions or 35 MeV Ar ions), similar macroscopic and structural changes were observed. The electronic stopping power threshold of Nd silicate apatite for amorphization was assessed at about S_e = 5 keV/nm. As apatite crystals containing actinides could be present in rare-earths rich nuclear glasses, SHI irradiation with Xe (995 MeV) ions was also used to damage the Nd silicate apatite crystals dispersed in a soda-lime aluminoborosilicate simplified nuclear glass over a depth of about 60 μm, to evaluate the possible formation of cracks in the residual glass due to crystals swelling. In spite of apatite crystals amorphization under SHI irradiation in the glass-ceramics, no cracking was observed in the glassy phase even close to the biggest crystals which could be explained by strain relaxation in the glass due to plastic deformation (creep) induced by SHI ion beam.