Swift heavy ion induced phase transformations in partially stabilized ZrO2

The paper reports on the effect of irradiation by swift heavy Xe ions on partially stabilized zirconia ceramics. XRD analysis identified two tetragonal phases with different degrees of tetragonality (transformable t phase and non-transformable metastable t” phase). TEM analysis of the irradiated samples showed that the efficiency of high-energy ion track formation decreases when the fluence and, hence, the fraction of t” phase increase. Changes in nanohardness, elastic modulus, and microhardness of partially stabilized ZrO2 ceramics before and after irradiation were investigated by nanoindentation and microindentation techniques. Mechanisms of ceramic layer hardening associated with phase rearrangement, compressive stress accumulation, and transformation and ferroelastic hardening are discussed.