CASCADE DAMAGE FORMATION IN GOLD UNDER SELF-ION IRRADIATION

To understand cascade damage formation as a function of primary recoil energy, thin foils of gold were irradiated with 20-400 keV self-ions to a fluence of 1.0 x 10(14) ions/m(2) at 300 K. The yield of groups o f vacancy clusters per irradiated ion saturated at an ion energy highe r than 100 keV. The number of clusters in a group was found to vary ev en for the same energy ions. The size distribution of the clusters was not strongly dependent on the number of clusters in a group and the i on energy. An attempt was made to predict the distribution of defect c lusters in thin foils of gold irradiated with 14 MeV neutrons from the present data based on a primary recoil energy spectrum.