Investigation of the microstructure of the fine-grained YPO₄:Gd ceramics with xenotime structure after Xe irradiation

The paper reports on the preparation of xenotime-structured ceramics by the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. Phosphates Y$_{0.95}$Gd$_{0.05}$PO$_4$ (YPO$_4$:Gd) were obtained by the sol-gel method. The synthesized nanopowders are collected in large agglomerates 10-50 mkm in size. Ceramics has a fine-grained microstructure and a high relative density (98.67%). The total time of the SPS process was approximately 18 min. High-density sintered ceramics YPO$_4$:Gd with a xenotime structure were irradiated with Xe$^{+26}$ ions (E = 167 MeV) to fluences of $1\times10^{12}$-$3\times 10^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$. Complete amorphization at maximum fluence was not achieved. As the fluence increases, an insignificant increase in the depth of the amorphous layer is observed. According to the results of grazing incidence XRD (GIXRD), with an increase in fluence from $1\times10^{12}$-$3\times 10^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$, an increase in the volume fraction of the amorphous structure from 20 to 70% is observed. The intensity of XRD peak 200 YPO$_4$:Gd after recovery annealing (700$^\circ$C, 18 h) reached a value of ~80% of the initial intensity I0.