Short-range order and electronic structure of radiation-damaged zircon according to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Structural characteristics of radiation‐amorphized ZrSiO4:U,Th according to Raman spectroscopy of Boson peak

“…[ 18,19 ] An increase in the diversity of short‐range order structures in the zirconium–oxygen sublattice due to a decrease in the coordination number of Zr atoms at high irradiation doses according to XPS data, was presumably attributed to a modification to the amorphous phase. [ 17 ] However, no dose‐ and temperature‐dependent variations in the amorphous structure were directly observed in earlier experiments.…”

“…The chemical heterogeneity revealed in the SLZ2 and SLZ3 samples is typical of that in Sri Lankian zircon. [ 17 ]…”

“… [ 8 ] ) is considered as an important model for radiation‐damaged silicates because it is able to incorporate the radioactive (U, Th) and rare‐earth impurities isomorphically and to absorb high doses of self‐irradiation by alpha particles and recoil nuclei over geological times of an order of hundreds million years. [ 2 ] The regularities of zircon radiation damage were explored using the X‐ray diffraction (XRD), [ 9,10 ] transmission electron microscopy, [ 11 ] magnetic nuclear resonance, [ 12 ] Raman and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, [ 13–15 ] measurements of the indentation hardness, [ 16 ] X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) [ 17 ] and computer simulation. [ 18,19 ] The crystalline‐to‐amorphous phase transformation was described in terms of two percolation transitions p1 and p2.…”

“…The chemical heterogeneity revealed in the SLZ2 and SLZ3 samples is typical of that in Sri Lankian zircon. [17] The results of the XRD analysis are shown in Figure 1 and Table 2. The unit-cell parameters a, c and the c=a ratio of the Mud Tank sample are close to those for wellcrystallized synthetic ZrSiO 4 .…”