Nanocluster formation in electron-irradiated Li2O crystals observed by elastic diffuse neutron scattering -: art. no. 135502

Previous work performed on electron-irradiated Li2O crystals has demonstrated the simultaneous formation of two populations of colloids of metallic lithium, one is associated with oxygen bubbles and a typical size of >10 mum, while the other one consists of nanoclusters in the range of <10 nm. In the present neutron scattering investigation these small colloids are characterized in detail based on a thorough analysis of distortion scattering around Bragg peaks. It is shown that the small lithium colloids are slightly elongated precipitates with typical dimensions of around similar to5 nm. For the large lithium colloids a well-defined orientation relation with respect to the Li2O matrix has been determined.