Comparison of damage produced by 209 MeV Kr irradiation in muscovite mica, graphite and silicon

A new irradiation geometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to investigate and compare damage produced in Si, highly oriented pyrolythic graphite (HOPG), and muscovite mica (MM). Although the value of electronic stopping for 209 MeV Kr ions is in the range of 10(4) keV/mu m for all three of the investigated materials, very different damage structures were found. ?The layered materials showed cleavage; in the case of mica, 100 nm deep ''channels'' and 1 mu m in width were imaged. In HOPG, both individual ion tracks of apparent width of 100 nm, and dense nuclear cascades of 500 nm in width were found. In the isotropic silicon with covalent bonding, it was possible to separate four different regions, with different type of damage, but no cleavage was present.