Polypropylene compositional evolution under 3.5 MeV He+ ion irradiation

A helium beam at 3.5 MeV was used to induce damage in thin polypropylene film of 5.1 μm in thickness. The fluence ranges from 2 × 1012 to 3.5 × 1015 cm−2. The evolution of the atomic composition (C and H) as a function of the fluence was investigated in situ by forward elastic scattering (C(α, α)C) and hydrogen elastic recoil detection (H(α, H)α), respectively. The helium beam was used at the same time for irradiation and analysis. In respect to the high sensitivity of the polypropylene to radiation damage, the beam current was kept at very low intensity of 0.5 nA. The mass loss becomes significant above a fluence of ∼5 × 1013 He+ cm−2. The carbon depletion levels off at a fluence of ∼5 × 1014 He+ cm−2 approximately while hydrogen loss continues to be present along the whole of the studied fluence range. The final carbon and hydrogen losses, at the highest fluence, are around 17% and 48% of their initial contents, respectively. Satisfactory fits to the release curves have been obtained in the framework of the bulk molecular recombination model (BMR). The deduced hydrogen and carbon release cross sections are 7.8 and 65.2 × 10−16 cm2, respectively. A comparison with our previous measurements of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film irradiated with 3.7 MeV He+ beam is made.