The observation of oscillatory behaviour in swift heavy ion irradiated quasicrystals

The effect of 835 MeV Kr irradiation at 90 K on a stable icosahedral quasic rystal (Al65Cu25Fe5V5) is discussed here. A Kr-bearn of this energy was cho sen in order to keep the stopping power similar to 1300 eV/Angstrom in acco rdance with our previous work [Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B, 156 (1999) 201], whi le increasing the travelled path in which strong electronic excitations occ ur (much greater than sample thickness). The ratio rho(phi)/rho (0) {resist ivity at fluence phi /resistivity at zero fluence} of quasicrystal goes thr ough oscillatory changes, up to similar to 1 X 10(12) ions/cm(2) where this ratio drops considerably. The ex situ XRD on the irradiated samples howeve r shows the evidence of degradation of the structure after a critical fluen ce of 1 X 10(11) ions/cm(2). From the ex situ XRD measurements, this degrad ation does not seem to increase with further fluence up to phi = 1 X 10(13) ions/cm(2). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.