Crystallographic orientation dependence of radiation damage in Ar+ implanted YSZ and MgO single crystals

Single crystals of magnesia (MgO) and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) with (1 0 0), (1 1 0) and (1 1 1) orientations were implanted with 100 and 150 keV Ar+ ions at room temperature. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry combined with ion channeling (RBS/C) was used to analyze radiation damage. Results showed that there is strong crystallographic orientation dependence for damage accumulation. In both materials, the greatest amount of damage was observed in samples with (1 1 1) orientation and the least in (1 1 0) samples. This variation in the amount of damage may be due to the dynamic annealing rate anisotropy. Such behavior of YSZ and MgO under ion bombardment confirms the damage anisotropy model describing the biaxial texture development in these materials during ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD).