Structural evolution of SiC nanostructured and conventional ceramics under irradiation

Nanostructured ceramics are envisaged for next generation nuclear reactors. In this study, we performed irradiation experiments on nanostructured and microstructured 3C-SiC samples, with 95MeV Xe ions at room temperature. This energy permits the observation of the combined electronic and nuclear interaction with matter. The structural evolution of the sample under irradiation was followed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The results do not reveal a complete amorphization, despite value of displacement per atom overcoming the total amorphization threshold determined for the monocrystalline 6H-SiC at room temperature with low energy ions. This may be attributed to competing effects between nuclear and electronic energy loss in this material.