Microstructure damage of titanium films by irradiation with fission fragments

Radiation damage caused by fission fragments to metal surfaces is an important research topic. Thin titanium foils were irradiated with a continuous wave beam of 132 MeV 132 Xe +29 at the current intensity of 2 pnA. Pre- and post-irradiated surface topologies were investigated using atomic force microscopy and the observed defects were quantified by root mean square roughness, depth profile of the disordered zones, size and areal density of the voids, and discussed as a function of the applied fluencies (1–9) × 10 13 Xe/cm 2 . The first ellipsoidal dislocation loops appeared at the fluence of 3.0 × 10 13 Xe/cm 2 with the areal density of 1.56 × 10 6 /cm 2 that increased to 2.0 × 10 7 cm −2 when the dose rose to 9.0 × 10 13 Xe/cm 2 . At this point also the first dislocation lines with the density of 1.3 × 10 7 cm −2 were seen. Our results suggest that the fission fragments might maximize large voids and dislocations and increase the degradation in depth resolution.