Atomistic structures of metastable and amorphous phases in ion-irradiated magnesium aluminate spinel

Ion-beam-induced microstructures in magnesium aluminate (MgAl2O4) spinel have been examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Irradiations were performed at cryogenic temperature (~120 K) on MgAl2O4 spinel single-crystal surfaces with (111) orientation, using 180 keV neon (Ne+) ions to ion fluences ranging from 1016 to 1017 Ne+ cm-2. Cross-sectional TEM observations indicated that the MgAl2O4 spinel transforms first into a metastable crystalline phase and then into an amorphous phase under these irradiation conditions. On the basis of selected-area electron diffraction and high-resolution TEM, we concluded that Ne-ion-beam irradiation induces an ordered spinel-to-disordered rock-salt-like structural phase transformation. Atomistic structures of amorphous MgAl2O4 were also examined on the basis of atomic pair distribution functions. We compared the experimentally obtained results with previous theoretically calculated results for the metastable and amorphous phases of MgAl2O4, and discussed the validity of the proposed ion-beam-induced structural changes in MgAl2O4 spinel.