Nanostructuring and strengthening of LiF crystals by swift heavy ions: AFM, XRD and nanoindentation study

Modifications of the structure and micromechanical properties of LiF crystals under high-fluence irradiation (1011–1013 ions cm−2) with swift C, Ti, Au and U ions of the specific energy of 11.1 MeV/u have been studied. In the case of heavy ions (U, Au), the AFM and SEM results reveal the bulk nanostructure consisting of columnar grains with nano-scale dimensions (50–100 nm). For lighter C ions the structure enriched with prismatic dislocation loops has been observed. High-resolution XRD reciprocal space maps for nano-structured LiF expose a mosaic-type structure with low-angle boundaries between grains.