Establishment of in situ TEM–implanter/accelerator interface facility at Wuhan University

In order to perform in situ investigations on the evolution of microstructures during ion irradiation for the evaluation of irradiation-resistance performance of advanced materials, we have established a transmission electron microscope (TEM)–implanter/accelerator interface facility at Wuhan University, the first of its kind in China. A Hitachi H800 TEM was linked to a 200 kV ion implanter and a 2×1.7 MV tandem accelerator through the interface system designed on the basis of ion beam transportation calculations. Effective steps were taken to isolate the TEM from mechanical vibration transmitted from the ion beam lines, and no significant degradation of microscope resolution was observed when the TEM operated under high zoom modes during the ion implantation. In the test experiments, ion beams of N+, He+, Ar+, and H+ were successfully transported from the implanter into the TEM chamber through the interface system, and the ion currents measured at the entrance of the TEM column were between 20 and 80 nA. The amorphisation process of Si crystal irradiated by N+ ion beams was successfully observed in the preliminary experiments, demonstrating that this interface facility is capable of in situ study of ion irradiated samples.