Comprehensive study of changes in the optical, structural and strength properties of ZrO₂ ceramics as a result of phase transformations caused by irradiation with heavy ions

This work is devoted to the study of the effect of irradiation with Kr¹⁵⁺ and Xe²³⁺ heavy ions with energies of 147 and 220 MeV, respectively, on the change in the optical, structural and strength properties of ceramics ZrO₂. Polycrystalline ZrO₂ ceramics with a tetragonal type of crystal structure, which are highly resistant to external influences, mechanical strength to cracking, and hardness were chosen as the object of research. The choice of heavy ions Kr¹⁵⁺ and Xe²³⁺ is due to the possibility of simulating the effect of nuclear fission fragments in an atomic reactor, and the choice of irradiation doses of 1 × 10¹³–1 × 10¹⁴ ion/cm² is due to the possibility of simulating the effects of overlapping defect regions arising along the trajectory of ions in the material. Using the X-ray diffraction method, it was found that in the case of irradiation with heavy ions, an increase in the radiation dose leads to phase transformations of the tetragonal type of the crystal lattice into a cubic one. In this case, for the samples irradiated with Xe²³⁺ ions at an irradiation dose of 1 × 10¹⁴ ion/cm², an almost complete phase transformation is observed. Dependences of changes in strength and optical characteristics on the type of irradiation and dose load have been established.