Effect of swift heavy ion irradiation in the migration behavior of Xe implanted into TiN

Sintered TiN were implanted with Xe ions of 360 keV to a fluence of 1.1 × 10 16 cm −2 at room temperature (RT) and others were co-irradiated with Xe ions of 167 MeV to a fluence of 3.4 × 10 14 cm −2 and Xe ions of 360 keV to a fluence of 1.1 × 10 16 cm −2 also at RT, successively. Both samples were isochronally annealed at temperatures ranging from 1100 to 1500 °C. Both irradiations caused no amorphization of the sintered TiN, however more defects were retained in the samples implanted with only Xe (360 keV) ions. Annealing of defects retained after irradiations were found to be faster in the co-irradiated samples. The migration behavior of implanted Xe was explained by trapping and de-trapping by defects at temperatures below 1200 °C while at temperatures above 1200 °C, it was dominated by grain boundary diffusion, in the un-irradiated samples. In the co-irradiated samples, Xe migrated via fast grain boundaries