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Amorphous silicon is a semiconductor with a lower density than the metallic silicon liquid. It is widely believed that the amorphous-liquid transition is a first-order melting transition. In contrast to this, recent computer simulations and the experimental observation of pressure-induced amorphization of nanoporous silicon have revived the idea of an underlying liquid-liquid phase transition implying the existence of a low-density liquid and its glass transition to the amorphous solid. Here we demonstrate that during irradiation with high-energy heavy ions amorphous silicon deforms plastically in the same way as conventional glasses. This behaviour provides experimental evidence for the existence of the low-density liquid. The glass transition temperature for a timescale of 10 picoseconds is estimated to be about 1,000 K. Our results support the idea of liquid polymorphism as a general phenomenon in tetrahedral networks.

Abstract. During their lifetime, cosmic dust silicates suffer from a continuous processing by annealing, cosmic ray and UV irradiation, destruction and possibly also interstellar recondensation. Since the discovery that a significant proportion of stardust silicates leaves their star in crystalline form, the question arose as to why the interstellar silicate dust component does not show any indication of crystallinity. Amorphization due to ion irradiation is one possible explanation for the effect. In this paper, the results of irradiation experiments of submicrometre-sized clinoenstatite (MgSiO 3 ) particles with 400 keV Ar

N, Ar, and Er ions were implanted into ZnO at 15 K within a large fluence range. The Rutherford backscattering technique in the channeling mode was used to study in situ the damage built-up in the Zn sublattice at 15 K. Several stages in the damage formation were observed. From the linear increase of the damage for low implantation fluences, an upper limit of the Zn displacement energy of 65 eV could be estimated for ͓0001͔ oriented ZnO. Annealing measurements below room temperature show a significant recovery of the lattice starting at temperatures between 80 and 130 K for a sample implanted with low Er fluence. Samples with higher damage levels do not reveal any damage recovery up to room temperature, pointing to the formation of stable defect complexes.

Abstract.Transport of silver and iodine through polycrystalline SiC layers produced by PBMR (Pty) Ltd for cladding of TRISO fuel kernels was investigated using Rutherford backscattering analysis and electron microscopy. Fluences of 2×1016 Ag + cm -2 and 1×10 16 I + cm -2 were implanted at room temperature, 350 °C and 600 °C with an energy of 360 keV, producing an atomic density of approximately 1.5% at the projected ranges of about 100 nm. The broadening of the implantation profiles and the loss of diffusors through the front surface during vacuum annealing at temperatures up to 1400 °C was determined. The results for room temperature implantations point to completely different transport mechanisms for silver and iodine in highly disordered silicon carbide. However, similar results are obtained for high temperature implantations, although iodine transport is much stronger influenced by lattice defects than is the case for silver. For both diffusors transport in well annealed samples can be described by Fickian grain boundary diffusion with no abnormal loss through the surface as would be expected from the presence of nano-pores and/or micro-cracks. At 1100 °C diffusion coefficients for silver and iodine are below our detection limit of 10 -21 m 2 s -1 , while they increase into the 10 -20 m 2 s -1 range at 1300 °C.

Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) were synthesized by the vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) growth mechanism using gold implanted silicon substrates. Implantation of high ion fluences leads to an amorphized silicon layer at the wafer surface. During annealing the Au in the implanted region agglomerates and yields Au droplets at the surface upon recrystallization of the amorphous layer. The structural quality of nanowires grown from implanted substrates is comparable to those grown on wafers with evaporated gold films. This opens up new possibilities for local growth of SiNWs by implanting through masks or using a focused ion beam technique.