64keV Ni ion implantation was performed at room temperature up to a dose of 131017 cm22 in a-Al2O3 single crystals. The charge states, structure, and optical properties of metallic embedded Ni nanoparticles were studied by using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy, and optical spectroscopy, respectively. XPS analysis showed that implanted Ni ions are mainly in charge state of metallic Ni0. Nanoparticles distributed from the surface to 30 nm below the surface were observed in a high-angle annular dark-field image. The size of nanoparticles ranges from 1 to 5nm in diameter. A high-resolution electron microscopy image indicated the Ni-implanted area had been entirely amorphized. A new broad absorption band centered at 400nm appeared in the optical absorption spectrum of the as-implanted crystal, due to surface plasma resonance of Ni nanoparticles. We did not find any emission band in the as-implanted sample under a Xe lamp excitation wavelength of 250-430nm in a spectrophotometer.

The microstructural evolution of a single crystal of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) implanted with Ti has been studied by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The implantation of 180 keV Ti ions to a dose of 131017 ions/cm2 was completed at room temperature. After annealing at 1100℃ in an Ar atmosphere for 2h, a phase transition from the fluorite structure of ZrO2 to an isometric pyrochlore structure-type, A2B2O7, occurred due to cation ordering. High-resolution TEM revealed nanodomains of pyrochlore, Y2(TixZr12x)2O7, with a>10.2460.05 Å. The nanodomains of the pyrochlore phase, embedded within the YSZ fluorite substrate, occurred in a depth range from 45 to 105 nm below the surface, which corresponds to Ti concentrations from; 10 to; 15 at. %. The nanoscale pyrochlore precipitates and the YSZ matrix have a completely coherent orientation.

A model is proposed for the calculation of the irradiation induced changes of the martensitic transformation temperatures of shape memory alloys. It considers the transition temperatures being determined by a chemical and a non-chemical term in the Gibbs free energy that can be affected by the irradiation induced changes of the vacancy density and the chemical ordering of the crystal structures. Numerical simulations for TiNi SMAs have shown that upon irradiation the austenite finish temperature Af can be raised slightly at the beginning stage. After that, both Af and the martensite start temperature Ms will decrease strongly and reach some stable values after extensive irradiations. Both the dose rate and the temperature of irradiations will affect the changes of Ms and Af. According to the simulation, the increase of Af at the beginning of irradiations is resulted from the irradiation induced point defect production that increases mainly the non-chemical term in the Gibbs free energy change of the martensitic transformation. The irradiation induced chemical disordering reduces both the chemical and non-chemical terms in the Gibbs free energy change and leads to the strong decreases of Ms and Af.

In this work, Ti-Ni shape memory alloy thin films were irradiated by 1.7MeV electron with three types of fluences: 4

The incomplete transformations of near equiatomic TiNi shape memory alloys were investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The results showed that the incomplete transformation can induce multistage phase transformation in a sample showing R-phase transformation, when the turn back temperature located in a value between Rf and Ms, the heat flow detected upon following heating only shows one endothermic peak. With decreasing the turn back temperature to a temperature between Ms and Mf, two endothermic peaks (multistage phase transformation) can be observed upon the following heating. There were no incomplete transformation induced multistage phase transformations in a sample without R-phase transformation.