Preparation of Microporous Membranes by Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation and Impedance Characterization

Polypropylene (PP) microporous membranes were successfully prepared by swift heavy ion irradiation and track-etching. Polypropylene foils were irradiated with Au-197 ions of kinetic energy 11.4 MeV.u(-1) (total energy of 2245.8 MeV) and fluence 1x10(8) ions.cm(-2) at normal incidence. The damaged regions produced by the gold ions along the trajectories were etched in H2SO4 and K2Cr2O7 solutions leading to the formation of cylindrical pores in the membranes. The pore diameters of the PP microporous membranes increased from 380 to 1610 nm as the etching time increased from 5 to 30 min. The surface and cross-section morphologies of the porous membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The micropores in the membranes were found to be cylindrical in shape, homogeneous in distribution, and equal in size. Some mathematical relations of the porosity of the PP microporous membranes were established by analytic derivation. The microporous membranes were used in lithium-ion batteries to measure their properties as separators. The electrical conductivity of the porous membrane immersed in liquid electrolyte was found to be comparable to that of commercial separators by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed that the porosity and electrical conductivity were dependent on the ion fluence and etching time. By adjusting these two factors, microporous membranes with good porosity and electrical conductivity were made that met the requirements for commercial use.

重离子辐照制备电池用微孔膜及其阻抗性质；Preparation of Microporous Membranes by Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation and Impedance Characterization

利用离子辐照结合径迹蚀刻方法制备聚丙烯(PP)微孔膜.用加速器产生的单核能为11.4MeV·u-1(总能量2245.8MeV)的197Au离子束辐照PP膜,剂量为1×108ions·cm-2.辐照后PP膜沿离子路径产生损伤区域,用硫酸与重铬酸钾的混合液进行蚀刻(5-30min),制备出孔径为380-1610nm的聚丙烯微孔膜.对膜的表面和断面形貌进行表征,微孔膜的孔径大小及空间分布均匀,孔道上下贯通,形状近似为圆柱形.给出了微孔膜的孔隙率理论公式.将制备的聚丙烯微孔膜用作锂离子电池隔膜,用电化学阻抗谱(EIS)测定浸满电解液的微孔膜的离子电导率,并与商用隔膜进行比较.分析表明辐照剂量和孔径大小均会影响膜的孔隙率和离子电导率,选择合适的辐照剂量和蚀刻时间,可以制备出孔隙率和离子电导率符合应用标准的聚丙烯微孔膜.

利用重离子辐照技术制备锂离子电池隔膜；Preparation Lithium-ion Battery Separator by Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation Methods

用能量11.4MeV/u和注量1×108ions/cm2的197Au离子垂直辐照聚丙烯薄膜,通过电导测量法监测温度、硫酸浓度和重铬酸钾浓度对径迹蚀刻速率的影响,得到合适的蚀刻条件;成功制备出孔径范围在600—1000nm的重离子径迹聚丙烯孔膜,并用场发射扫描电镜对孔的形状及孔径大小进行了表征,对孔洞锥角的形成进行了分析,为重离子辐照技术制备锂离子电池隔膜提供了实验数据。

94MeV Xe离子辐照引起的薄膜硅光学带隙变化研究；Modification of Optical Bandgap of Thin Silicon Films Induced by 94 MeV Xe Ion Irradiation

室温下,用94MeV的Xe离子辐照纳米晶和非晶硅薄膜以及单晶硅样品,辐照量分别为1.0×1011,1.0×1012和1.0×1013ions/cm2。所有样品均在室温下用UV/VIS/NIR光谱仪进行检测分析。通过对比研究了纳米晶、非晶、单晶硅样品的光学带隙随Xe离子辐照量的变化。结果表明,不同结构的硅材料中Xe离子辐照引起的光学带隙变化规律差异显著:随着Xe离子辐照量的增加,单晶硅的光学带隙基本不变,非晶硅薄膜的光学带隙由初始的约1.78eV逐渐减小到约1.54eV,而纳米晶硅薄膜的光学带隙则由初始的约1.50eV快速增大至约1.81eV,然后再减小至约1.67eV。对硅材料结构影响辐照效应的机理进行了初步探讨。

Neutron dose measurement in carbon ion radiation therapy at HIRFL (IMP)

For radiation protection purposes, the neutron dose in carbon ion radiation therapy at the HIRFL (Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou) was investigated. The neutron dose from primary C-12 ions with a specific energy of 100 MeV/u delivered from SSC was roughly measured with a standard Anderson-Broun rem-meter using a polyethylene target at various distances. The result shows that a maximum neutron dose contribution of 19 mSv in a typically surface tumor treatment was obtained, which is less than 1% of the planed heavy ion dose and is in reasonable agreement with other reports. Also the gamma-ray dose was measured in this experiment using a thermo luminescent detector.

Low energy C-13(+) and C-13(2+) ion irradiation of water ice

In this paper we report the results of the first experimental study of the irradiation of low temperature water ice (30 and 90 k) using low energy (4keV) C-13(+) and C-(2+) ions. (CO2)-C-13 and H2o2 were readily formed within the H2O ice with the product ion yield and grwoth rate observed to be highly dependent on both the sample temperature and the ion charge state.

Charge equilibrium of a laser-generated carbon-ion beam in warm dense matter

Using ion carbon beams generated by high intensity short pulse lasers we perform measurements of single shot mean charge equilibration in cold or isochorically heated solid density aluminum matter. We demonstrate that plasma effects in such matter heated up to 1 eV do not significantly impact the equilibration of carbon ions with energies 0.045-0.5 MeV/nucleon. Furthermore, these measurements allow for a first evaluation of semiempirical formulas or ab initio models that are being used to predict the mean of the equilibrium charge state distribution for light ions passing through warm dense matter.

Effects and Modifications in In/Se and In/Sb Systems by Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation

Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Fabrication of thin films and nano columnar structures of Fe-Ni amorphous alloys and modification of its surface properties by thermal annealing and swift heavy ion irradiation for tailoring the magnetic properties

Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Possibility of waveguide formation on organic nonlinear crystal methyl para-hydroxy benzoate using high energy ion irradiation

Organic nonlinear optical single crystals of Methyl para-Hydroxy Benzoate (MHB) have been grown using gel-solution technique. These crystals are cut along z-axis and are bombarded with Ag14+ ions of energy 100 MeV. The results show an increase in refractive index at the ion irradiated region. The dielectric constant of the irradiated crystal is increased more than 15 times compared to that of a nonirradiated crystal. The result of these changes and comparative study of second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency before and after irradiation is discussed.

Magnetic and topographical modifications of amorphous Co–Fe thin films induced by high energy Ag7+ ion irradiation

We have investigated the effects of swift heavy ion irradiation on thermally evaporated 44 nm thick, amorphous Co77Fe23 thin films on silicon substrates using 100 MeV Ag7+ ions fluences of 1 1011 ions/ cm2, 1 1012 ions/cm2, 1 1013 ions/cm2, and 3 1013 ions/cm2. The structural modifications upon swift heavy irradiation were investigated using glancing angle X-ray diffraction. The surface morphological evolution of thin film with irradiation was studied using Atomic Force Microscopy. Power spectral density analysis was used to correlate the roughness variation with structural modifications investigated using X-ray diffraction. Magnetic measurements were carried out using vibrating sample magnetometry and the observed variation in coercivity of the irradiated films is explained on the basis of stress relaxation. Magnetic force microscopy images are subjected to analysis using the scanning probe image processor software. These results are in agreement with the results obtained using vibrating sample magnetometry. The magnetic and structural properties are correlated

Tailoring Magnetic Properties of Co-Fe Thin Films by Topographical Modifications Using Thermal Annealing and Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation and Fabrication of Magnetoelectric Multilayers for Device Applications

Magnetism and magnetic materials have been playing a lead role in improving the quality of life. They are increasingly being used in a wide variety of applications ranging from compasses to modern technological devices. Metallic glasses occupy an important position among magnetic materials. They assume importance both from a scientific and an application point of view since they represent an amorphous form of condensed matter with significant deviation from thermodynamic equilibrium. Metallic glasses having good soft magnetic properties are widely used in tape recorder heads, cores of high-power transformers and metallic shields. Superconducting metallic glasses are being used to produce high magnetic fields and magnetic levitation effect. Upon heat treatment, they undergo structural relaxation leading to subtle rearrangements of constituent atoms. This leads to densification of amorphous phase and subsequent nanocrystallisation. The short-range structural relaxation phenomenon gives rise to significant variations in physical, mechanical and magnetic properties. Magnetic amorphous alloys of Co-Fe exhibit excellent soft magnetic properties which make them promising candidates for applications as transformer cores, sensors, and actuators. With the advent of microminiaturization and nanotechnology, thin film forms of these alloys are sought after for soft under layers for perpendicular recording media. The thin film forms of these alloys can also be used for fabrication of magnetic micro electro mechanical systems (magnetic MEMS). In bulk, they are drawn in the form of ribbons, often by melt spinning. The main constituents of these alloys are Co, Fe, Ni, Si, Mo and B. Mo acts as the grain growth inhibitor and Si and B facilitate the amorphous nature in the alloy structure. The ferromagnetic phases such as Co-Fe and Fe-Ni in the alloy composition determine the soft magnetic properties. The grain correlation length, a measure of the grain size, often determines the soft magnetic properties of these alloys. Amorphous alloys could be restructured in to their nanocrystalline counterparts by different techniques. The structure of nanocrystalline material consists of nanosized ferromagnetic crystallites embedded in an amorphous matrix. When the amorphous phase is ferromagnetic, they facilitate exchange coupling between nanocrystallites. This exchange coupling results in the vanishing of magnetocrystalline anisotropy which improves the soft magnetic properties. From a fundamental perspective, exchange correlation length and grain size are the deciding factors that determine the magnetic properties of these nanocrystalline materials. In thin films, surfaces and interfaces predominantly decides the bulk property and hence tailoring the surface roughness and morphology of the film could result in modified magnetic properties. Surface modifications can be achieved by thermal annealing at various temperatures. Ion irradiation is an alternative tool to modify the surface/structural properties. The surface evolution of a thin film under swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation is an outcome of different competing mechanism. It could be sputtering induced by SHI followed by surface roughening process and the material transport induced smoothening process. The impingement of ions with different fluence on the alloy is bound to produce systematic microstructural changes and this could effectively be used for tailoring magnetic parameters namely coercivity, saturation magnetization, magnetic permeability and remanence of these materials. Swift heavy ion irradiation is a novel and an ingenious tool for surface modification which eventually will lead to changes in the bulk as well as surface magnetic property. SHI has been widely used as a method for the creation of latent tracks in thin films. The bombardment of SHI modifies the surfaces or interfaces or creates defects, which induces strain in the film. These changes will have profound influence on the magnetic anisotropy and the magnetisation of the specimen. Thus inducing structural and morphological changes by thermal annealing and swift heavy ion irradiation, which in turn induce changes in the magnetic properties of these alloys, is one of the motivation of this study. Multiferroic and magneto-electrics is a class of functional materials with wide application potential and are of great interest to material scientists and engineers. Magnetoelectric materials combine both magnetic as well as ferroelectric properties in a single specimen. The dielectric properties of such materials can be controlled by the application of an external magnetic field and the magnetic properties by an electric field. Composites with magnetic and piezo/ferroelectric individual phases are found to have strong magnetoelectric (ME) response at room temperature and hence are preferred to single phasic multiferroic materials. Currently research in this class of materials is towards optimization of the ME coupling by tailoring the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive properties of the two individual components of ME composites. The magnetoelectric coupling constant (MECC) (_ ME) is the parameter that decides the extent of interdependence of magnetic and electric response of the composite structure. Extensive investigates have been carried out in bulk composites possessing on giant ME coupling. These materials are fabricated by either gluing the individual components to each other or mixing the magnetic material to a piezoelectric matrix. The most extensively investigated material combinations are Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) or Lead Magnesium Niobate-Lead Titanate (PMNPT) as the piezoelectric, and Terfenol-D as the magnetostrictive phase and the coupling is measured in different configurations like transverse, longitudinal and inplane longitudinal. Fabrication of a lead free multiferroic composite with a strong ME response is the need of the hour from a device application point of view. The multilayer structure is expected to be far superior to bulk composites in terms of ME coupling since the piezoelectric (PE) layer can easily be poled electrically to enhance the piezoelectricity and hence the ME effect. The giant magnetostriction reported in the Co-Fe thin films makes it an ideal candidate for the ferromagnetic component and BaTiO3 which is a well known ferroelectric material with improved piezoelectric properties as the ferroelectric component. The multilayer structure of BaTiO3- CoFe- BaTiO3 is an ideal system to understand the underlying fundamental physics behind the ME coupling mechanism. Giant magnetoelectric coupling coefficient is anticipated for these multilayer structures of BaTiO3-CoFe-BaTiO3. This makes it an ideal candidate for cantilever applications in magnetic MEMS/NEMS devices. SrTiO3 is an incipient ferroelectric material which is paraelectric up to 0K in its pure unstressed form. Recently few studies showed that ferroelectricity can be induced by application of stress or by chemical / isotopic substitution. The search for room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in SrTiO3-CoFe-SrTiO3 multilayer structures is of fundamental interest. Yet another motivation of the present work is to fabricate multilayer structures consisting of CoFe/ BaTiO3 and CoFe/ SrTiO3 for possible giant ME coupling coefficient (MECC) values. These are lead free and hence promising candidates for MEMS applications. The elucidation of mechanism for the giant MECC also will be the part of the objective of this investigation.