Damage accumulation in strontium titanate $\left(\mathrm{Sr}\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_3\right)$ from $1.0\mathrm{MeV}$ Au irradiation has been investigated at temperatures from $150\text{to}400\mathrm{K}$. The relative disorder on the Sr and Ti sublattices at the damage peak has been determined as a function of local dose and temperature. A disorder accumulation model has been fit to data from this study and from the literature, indicating that defect-stimulated amorphization is the primary amorphization mechanism up to $\sim 360\mathrm{K}$. High-dose irradiation at $400\mathrm{K}$ leads to formation of an amorphous surface layer. Analyses of the temperature dependence for amorphization indicate that the amorphization kinetics are consistent with irradiation-enhanced and thermal recovery processes with activation energies of $0.1\pm 0.05\mathrm{eV}$ and $0.7\pm 0.1\mathrm{eV}$, respectively. Under $200\mathrm{keV}$ electron-beam irradiation, the epitaxial recrystallization rates are orders of magnitude higher than thermal rates, and an activation energy of $0.1\pm 0.05\mathrm{eV}$ is determined for the e-beam enhanced recrystallization processes.

• Received 8 June 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.72.094112