Modification of Fe-B based metallic glasses using swift heavy ions

We report on small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements of amorphous Fe80B20, Fe85B15, Fe81B13.5Si3.5C2, and Fe40Ni40B20 metallic alloys irradiated with 11.1 MeV/u 132Xe, 152Sm, 197Au, and 8.2 MeV/u 238U ions. SAXS experiments are nondestructive and give evidence for ion track formation including quantitative information about the size of the track radius. The measurements also indicate a cylindrical track structure with a sharp transition to the undamaged surrounding matrix material. Results are compared with calculations using an inelastic thermal spike model to deduce the critical energy loss for the track formation threshold. The damage recovery of ion tracks produced in Fe80B20 by 11.1 MeV/u 197Au ions was studied by means of isochronal annealing yielding an activation energy of 0.4 ± 0.1 eV