Swift Heavy Ion-Induced Amorphization of CaZrO3 Perovskite*

Perovskite structures (ABO3) are an important class of ceramics with a large variety of derivative structure-types (e.g., cubic, hexagonal, and orthorhombic). Owing to this structural flexibility, perovskites have very different physical and chemical properties leading to numerous technological applications. Radiation damage in perovskites is of interest due to their potential as actinide waste forms. Powder CaZrO3 perovskite was irradiated with 940-MeV Au ions at the UNILAC M2-beamline [1]. The irra-diations were performed in steps of 1×1012 ions/cm2 up to a fluence of 8×1012 ions/cm2 with two additional expo-sures at 1×1013 ions/cm2 and 1.5×1013 ions/cm2. During beam interruptions, the structure of the powder material was analysed by in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) meas