Small-angle X-ray scattering measurement of the internal microstructure of natural zircon crystals

Zircon crystals change their physical properties significantly over time in response to the radiation damage (metamictization) induced in the lattice by the presence of radionuclides U and Th. Crystalline zircon has extremely low diffusion rates of the radiogenic daughter product, Pb. Lead diffusion is enhanced in metamict volumes, but the observed lack of correlation between Pb loss and metamictization in natural zircons requires that other mechanisms control the incidence of Pb migration. The proposition that self-induced stress and elasticity contrasts in zoned natural crystals create fast-track Pb migration pathways, in response to time-integrated radiation damage, requires a means of detecting the microstructures within zircons at the interatomic scale at which Pb migration takes place. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is introduced as a means of detecting candidate microstructures including subgrain boundaries, defect networks and microfractures produced by differential metamictization. It is shown that a classical X-ray source yields measurable SAXS response from contrasting metamict and crystalline domains within a crystal, and these properties are quantified for a metamict zircon megacryst. Detection of the weaker SAXS response expected from microfractures and networked defects requires the more intense X-rays of synchrotron-source radiation.