Influence of the substrate temperature on the latent track damage cross section in magnetic insulators

The latent track damage cross section and defect morphology are well known in magnetic insulators. Irradiations of such inorganic materials (Y3Fe5O12, BaFe12O19 and SrFe12O19 in two different crystalline orientations) have been undertaken at different substrate temperatures. Xenon irradiations were performed at the following substrate temperatures 20, 100, 330 and 600 K and krypton irradiations only at 100 and 300 K. For the range of electronic stopping power, dE/dx, for which the damage morphology is known to be cylindrical and continuous, the latent track damage cross section is the same within the experimental error over the irradiation temperature range 20 to 300 K while, according to the material, annealing can occur at 600 K. In the range of dE/dx for which the damage morphology is discontinuous (spherical isolated defects or discontinuous cylindrical ones) the damage cross section is bigger at 300 K than at 100 K. (author)