Damage Clusters in Molecular-Ion-Bombarded Gold Observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy

Stereo electron microscopy of gold bombarded at room temperature with atomic and molecular ions shows that the nature of damage clusters is sensitive to the density of deposited energy. Both the total number of defects and their distribution in space show that vacancy loops are formed preferentially at high density of deposited energy and interstitial loops at low density. Calculations indicate that the limiting density corresponds to ∼ ${10}^{-2\mathrm{}}$ point defects per atom.