Effect of electronic energy loss on ion track formation in amorphous Ge

The formation of ion tracks was studied in amorphous Ge for irradiation with Au ions with energies of 89 MeV, 185 MeV and 2.19 GeV. Synchrotron based small-angle X-ray scattering revealed an underlying core–shell morphology of the ion tracks for all irradiation energies. While the ion track dimensions increase with the electronic energy loss for the lower irradiation energies, the ion track radius remains unchanged for the highest energy which indicates an effect of the projectile velocity on the process of ion track formation.