Positron annihilation investigation in ion-implanted Yttria-stabilized zirconia

Implantation with a variety of sub-MeV ions (He, Ar, Xe, O, and I) were performed on cubic single crystals of yttria-stabilized zirconia in order to assess the capability of such material to withstand high fluences as a confinement matrix for nuclear waste. In this work, we confronted the results of both Doppler Broadening using slow positron implantation spectroscopy (DB-SPIS) and the Rutherford Backscattering/Channeling spectroscopy (RBS-C) which are sensitive to lattice defects almost opposite in nature. In spite of their difference in defect specific sensitivity, and except for a precursory damage production stage almost exclusively exhibited by SPIS for very low doses (< 0.1 dpa), either techniques show a similar fluence dependence, which exhibits 3 stages starting respectively around 0.1, 2 and 3 dpa, regardless of the damaging ion. However, owing to the stage I plateau displayed in the variation of the DB-SPIS lineshape parameter, we were able to estimate an ion-mass dependence of the critical size of open-volume defects reached before the production of new predominant defects.