Analysis of the phenomenon of radiation-induced nanostructure development in subsurface metal regions

Mechanisms of the radiation-induced development of nanostructures in subsurface metal regions have been analyzed based on field-ion microscopy data. It is concluded that the modification of near-surface metal regions on a nanometer scale as a result of the interaction with Ar$^+$ ion beams proceeds by several mechanisms. In particular, for a fluence of $F$ = 10$^{16}$ ion/cm$^2$ (at an ion energy of $E$ = 30 keV), the main contribution is due to the ion channeling. A tenfold increase in the ion fluence leads to prevailing deformation mechanism in nanostructure formation in the subsurface metal regions.