Nucleation of He bubbles in amorphous FeBSi alloy irradiated with He ions

Abstract

It is interesting to investigate the formation of He bubbles in amorphous alloys because point defects do not exist in amorphous materials. In the present study, the microstructural evolution of amorphous Fe79B16Si5 alloy, either irradiated with 5 keV He^{+} ions or implanted with 150 eV He^{+} ions without causing displacement damage, and then annealed at a high temperature, was investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Vacancy-type defects were formed in the amorphous alloy after irradiation with 5 keV He^{+} ions, and He bubbles formed during annealing the irradiated samples at high temperature. On the other hand, for samples implanted with 150 eV He^{+} ions, although He atoms are also trapped in the free volume, no He bubbles were observed during annealing the samples even up to 873 K. In conclusion, the formation of He bubbles is related to the formation and migration of vacancy-type defects even in amorphous alloys.