Direct observation of bulk and surface effects caused by SHI impacts

High-energy heavy ions deposit large amounts of energy in the electronic subsystem of target materials. Impacts may lead to the formation of latent tracks as well as modification of the target surface through the formation of hillocks. Typical experimental techniques employed to study these effects such as XRD, RBS and SAXS rely on sampling relatively large volumes containing many tracks and then inferring some "averaged" track parameters such as track diameter by making assumptions of the individual track morphologies. Aberration corrected TEM is unique in that it is the only experimental technique with sufficient spatial resolution to observe single ion tracks and hillocks at sub nanometer scale. Several case studies of imaging tracks and hillocks in amorphizable and non-amorphizable materials will be presented to give an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the technique for use in the study of SHI impacted materials