Track creation after swift heavy ion irradiation of insulators

The dynamics of structural modifications of insulators irradiated with swift heavy ions were investigated theoretically applying a combination of Monte-Carlo method (MC), used to describe SHI penetration and following excitation and relaxation of the electronic subsystem, with Two Temperature Model (TTM) describing the heating of the lattice. This MC-TTM combination demonstrates that secondary ionizations play a very important role for the track formation process. They lead to an additional term in the heat diffusion equation related to energy stored in the hole subsystem. This storage of energy causes a significant delay of heating and prolongs the timescales up to tens of picoseconds. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.