In this work, a detailed analysis of He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe precipitates in a complex borosilicate glass using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with in-situ ion implantation is presented. With in-situ monitoring, the real-time dynamics of precipitate and void evolution under ion implantation was followed. Using appropriate equations of state and, Monte-Carlo simulations to supplement the TEM images, we then discuss in detail the possibility and ways of differentiating the precipitates of various noble gases from empty voids. It is shown that all the noble gases precipitate as inclusions of supercritical fluid. With the aid of the simulations, the crucial role played by the size and density of the precipitates and atomic number of the gas atoms in affecting the visibility of the precipitates is highlighted. The results show that the precipitates and voids can be unambiguously differentiated in the case of Xe and Kr whereas the precipitates of other lighter noble gases cannot be differentiated from the voids. However, the precipitate and void evolution under ion irradiation follow different dynamics, knowledge of which allows one to differentiate between the precipitates and voids even for lighter noble gases. Besides shedding light on the subject of noble gas precipitation and identification of the precipitates and voids, the study highlights the complexity in dissociating the behaviour of voids from the process of precipitate re-solution. This type of knowledge is pivotal in developing models describing the evolution of precipitates, voids and macroscopic porosity in a number of materials.

中文翻译：

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密度和Z对比度对稀有气体沉淀物和空隙可见性的影响，这是通过蒙特卡洛模拟得出的。

在这项工作中，使用透射电子显微镜（TEM）和原位离子注入技术，对复杂硼硅酸盐玻璃中He，Ne，Ar，Kr和Xe沉淀物进行了详细分析。通过原位监测，可以跟踪离子注入下沉淀物和空隙演化的实时动态。使用适当的状态方程和蒙特卡洛模拟来补充TEM图像，然后我们详细讨论区分各种稀有气体从空洞中析出的可能性和方法。结果表明，所有稀有气体均以超临界流体的夹杂物形式析出。在模拟的帮助下，突出了沉淀物的大小和密度以及气体原子的原子序数在影响沉淀物可见度方面所起的关键作用。结果表明，在Xe和Kr的情况下，析出物和空隙可以明确区分，而其他较轻的稀有气体的析出物则不能与空隙区分开。但是，离子辐照下的析出物和空隙的发展遵循不同的动力学原理，即使对于较轻的稀有气体，其知识也可以使它们区别于析出物和空隙。除了阐明稀有气体的沉淀以及对沉淀物和空隙的识别，这项研究还强调了从沉淀物再分解过程中分离空隙行为的复杂性。在开发描述多种材料中的析出物，空隙和宏观孔隙率的模型时，此类知识至关重要。