Damage and deuterium retention in LiAlO₂ single crystals irradiated with deuterium ions using ion-beam techniques and optical absorption measurements

Ion beam analysis techniques and optical absorption measurements were employed to quantitatively examine the damage and deuterium retention in LiAlO₂ single crystals irradiated with 10 keV D2+. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling geometry revealed that the lattice atoms were disordered by the incident deuterium ions in the ratio O/Al of 2.5. Elastic recoil detection analysis showed that all the incident deuterium ions were retained near the end of their trajectories with a maximum concentration of 0.7 D/Al at room temperature. The depth profiles of the disordered atoms were nearly identical to those of the retained deuterium atoms. The release of the retained deuterium atoms and the annihilation of the ion-induced color centers, which contributed to an optical absorption band at 5.25 eV, were observed in the same temperature range. A correlation was established between the oxygen vacancies and the retained deuterium atoms.