Investigation of the Microstructure of Fine-Grained YPO<sub>4</sub>:Gd Ceramics with Xenotime Structure after Xe Irradiation
Dmitriy A. Mikhaylov,
Ekaterina A. Potanina,
Aleksey V. Nokhrin,
Albina I. Orlova,
Pavel A. Yunin,
Nikita V. Sakharov,
Maksim S. Boldin,
Oleg A. Belkin,
Vladimir A. Skuratov,
Askar T. Issatov,
Vladimir N. Chuvil’deev,
Nataliya Y. Tabachkova
Affiliations
Dmitriy A. Mikhaylov
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Ekaterina A. Potanina
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Aleksey V. Nokhrin
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Albina I. Orlova
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Pavel A. Yunin
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Nikita V. Sakharov
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Maksim S. Boldin
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Oleg A. Belkin
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Vladimir A. Skuratov
G.N. Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Russia
Askar T. Issatov
G.N. Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Russia
Vladimir N. Chuvil’deev
Materials Science Department, Physical and Technical Research Institute, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 603022 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Nataliya Y. Tabachkova
Center Collective Use “Materials Science and Metallurgy”, National University of Science and Technology “MISIS”, 119991 Moscow, Russia
This paper reports on the preparation of xenotime-structured ceramics using the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. Y0.95Gd0.05PO4 (YPO4:Gd) phosphates were obtained using the sol-gel method. The synthesized powders were nanodispersed and were agglomerated (the agglomerates sizes were 10–50 µm). The ceramics had a fine-grained microstructure and a high relative density (98.67 ± 0.18%). The total time of the SPS process was approximately 18 min. The sintered high-density YPO4:Gd ceramics with a xenotime structure were irradiated with 132Xe+26 ions with 167 MeV of energy and fluences in the range of 1 × 1012–3 × 1013 cm−2. Complete amorphization was not achieved even at the maximum fluence. The calculated value of the critical fluence was (9.2 ± 0.1) × 1014 cm−2. According to the results of grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), the volume fraction of the amorphous structure increased from 20 to 70% with increasing fluence from 1 × 1012 up to 3 × 1013 cm−2. The intensity of the 200 YPO4:Gd XRD peak reached ~80% of the initial intensity after recovery annealing (700 °C, 18 h).
