M. Rusinowicz; S. Sao-Joao; M. Bourguignon; G. Rosales-Sosa; Y. Kato; F. Volpi; E. Barthel; G. Kermouche
Scripta Materialia 261 (2025) 116628
We report a new approach on the phenomenon of plastic flow induced by electron irradiation in amorphous
silica, revealing that the total injected electric charge is the governing parameter of the mechanical response:
micropillar relaxation tests conducted under electron irradiation showed a one-to-one relationship between the
injected electric charge and the measured mechanical stress level, regardless of the applied current. Moreover, by
performing these tests at high temperature, we have found that the effects of electronic processes and temperature
are decoupled. This result suggests that under the present irradiation/temperature conditions, the density of
flow defects is controlled only by irradiation, while the plastic rearrangement of the defects depends only on
temperature