High-energy heavy ion irradiation of HOPG

•Ion tracks were found on the surface of HOPG after irradiation with high energy heavy ions.•Damage accumulation below the surface is not due to ion track formation.•SHIBIEC effect was not found in HOPG.•Indication for particle assisted prompt annealing in HOPG was found. Understanding the behavior of the graphite under extreme conditions is very important for its use in applications related to the nuclear technology. In this work, we used atomic force microscopy, scanning tunnelling microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy to study the graphite response to high-energy heavy ions irradiation. On the surface, we found ion tracks after grazing incidence ion irradiation by 23 MeV I, which makes the graphite surface susceptible to this type of irradiation. Within the bulk, no tracks have been found after normal incidence irradiation. However, we show that electronic energy loss plays a role in defect recovery, making graphite below the surface even more stable to the high-energy heavy ion irradiation.