Damage rates of MeV Al ions in aluminum

Damage rates of 5 MeV /sup 27/Al ions in Al have been measured as a function of the ion path length in Al. The technique developed for this study employed evaporated Al thin film (approximately 0.4 - 0.5 ..mu..m thick), electrical resistivity specimens, as a damage sensor and variation in ion path lengths were obtained by insertion of thin foils of Al immediately in front of the resistivity specimen. Irradiations and electrical resistance measurements were carried out below 10/sup 0/K to ''freeze in'' the displacement damage and to provide suitable conditions for precision electrical measurements. The resistance increase due to irradiation is a measure of the displacement damage resulting from ion-atom collisions in the specimen. The damage rates vary about an order of magnitude over the range of the ions and are in general agreement with calculated damage rates obtained from theory. 9 fig.