Infrared spectrometry observations of SiO2 films irradiated by high energy heavy ions

Abstract Thermally-grown silicon dioxide (SiO2) layers have been irradiated at room temperature by high energy, O, Ni and Xe ions with doses up to 1014 ions/cm2. These experiments allow to cover a wide range of electronic stopping power values (from 2 to 60 MeV.cm2/mg). The infrared (IR) absorption spectrometry has been used to evaluate the changes in the atomic arrangement of the SiO4 tetrahedra and to determine the damage production cross section A and the track radii in the amorphous SiO2 films as a function of the electronic stopping power.