The discrepancies in multistep damage evolution of yttria-stabilized zirconia irradiated with different ions

This paper reports a comprehensive investigation of structural damage in yttria-stabilized zirconia irradiated with different ions over a wide fluence range. A similar multistep damage accumulation exists for the irradiations of different ions, but the critical doses for occurrence of second damage step, characterized by a faster increase in damage fraction, and the maximum elastic strain at the first damage step are varied and depend on ion mass. For irradiations of heavier ions, the second damage step occurs at a higher dose with a lower critical elastic strain. Furthermore, larger extended defects were observed in the irradiations of heavy ions at the second damage step. Associated with other experiment results and multistep damage accumulation model, the distinct discrepancies in the damage buildup under irradiations of different ions were interpreted by the effects of electronic excitation, energy of primary knock-on atom and chemistry contributions of deposited ions