Evolution of microstructure resulting from high electronic excitation during swift heavy ion irradiations

This paper is devoted to the specific damage processes resulting from high levels of energy deposition in electronic excitation (a few 10 keV/nm) in metallic targets. Such conditions are fulfilled during irradiations with GeV heavy ions. After a short discussion about the mechanisms of energy deposition in elastic and inelastic collisions, the various microstructural changes observed during swift heavy ion irradiations of metals are described. The damage resulting from electronic excitation is localized along the ion wake and consists mainly in local or long-range order modifications or even phase transformation in crystalline materials and in anisotropic growth in amorphous materials. A tentative model based on the Coulomb explosion mechanism explains how part of the energy deposited in electronic excitation can be transferred to lattice atoms and accounts for the available experimental results. (orig.)