Displacive radiation-induced structural contraction in nanocrystalline ZrN

作者：Lu Fengyuan; Huang Mengbing; Yaqoob Faisal; Lang Maik; Namavar Fereydoon; Trautmann Christina; Sun Hongtao; Ewing Rodney C; Lian Jie^*

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2012, 101(4): 041904.

DOI：10.1063/1.4738772

Nanocrystalline ZrN thin films with 5 nm grain size, prepared by ion beam assisted deposition, maintained their isometric structure upon intensive displacive and ionizing irradiations, indicating an extremely high stability similar to bulk ZrN. However, a unique structural contraction up to 1.42% in lattice parameter occurred only in nano-sized ZrN upon displacive irradiations. A significant nitrogen loss occurred with reduced N:Zr atomic ratio to 0.88, probably due to the production of displaced nitrogen atoms and fast diffusion along grain boundaries in nanocrystalline ZrN matrix. The accumulation of nitrogen vacancies and related strain relaxation may be responsible for the structural contraction.

• 出版日期2012-7-23