Material-related issues at high-power and high-energy ion beam facilities

When solids are exposed to energetic ions (MeV-GeV), their physical and chemical structure can be severely modified. The change is governed by ultrafast dynamical processes starting from the deposition of large energy densities, electronic excitation and ionization processes, and finally damage creation in the atomic lattice system. In many materials, each projectile creates a cylindrical track with a few nanometers in diameter and up to many μm in length. To study and monitor the creation of damage, the GSI irradiation facility dedicated to materials science provides different in-situ and on-line techniques such as high resolution microscopy, X-ray diffraction, optical absorption spectroscopy, thermal imaging and residual gas analysis. The irradiation experiments can be performed under various gas atmospheres and under cryogenic or elevated temperature.