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Ion-beam-induced crystallization of radiation-resistant MAX phase nanostructures

ABSTRACT Self-organization is a phenomenon that occurs under certain circumstances with different types of materials – liquids, bulk, and thin films, organic, inorganic or hybrid solids. This unique effect appears as an unusual part of various dynamic processes, such as co-deposition of immiscible phases, or due to modifications by external stimuli, such as thermal annealing or laser irradiation. A significant aspect of this effect is a certain level of energy flow, which creates conditions for the onset of a coordinated re-arrangement that leads to the self-organization of materials. Of interest is the stimulus of bombardment by energetic ions, which can lead (i) to radiation damage to the original structure, but (ii) also to constructive effects – the synthesis of materials with new structural forms and novel properties. The manifestation of a constructive ion irradiation stimulus was investigated also in this paper. Ternary and binary thin films – n-times repeating groups of (Ti/C)n, (Ti/Sn/C)n, (Hf/In/C)n with stoichiometric ratios 2/1 and 2/1/1 prepared by ion beam sputtering, were bombarded using 35 keV or 200 keV Ar+ ions to 1013 cm−2 or 1015 cm−2 fluence. Irradiation with swift heavy ions to such a high fluence should have a significant impact on the material. In fact, it turned out that the bombardment with Ar+ ions led to a pronounced re-arrangement of the inspected multilayers – to disruption of their original structure and self-crystallization of MAX and MXene nanostructures with various (nano-to-meso) size and densities. This effect was attributed to the collision cascade energy transfer, but it is also considered to be due to collective excitation processes. This result may repoint to the importance of ion irradiation for the technology of new materials, which can be otherwise difficult to synthesize in other ways.