Magnetic effects induced by self-ion irradiation of Fe films

Abstract : Iron magnetic moment enhancement is observed following the irradiation of iron films with 490 keV Fe$^+$ at room temperature. The iron magnetic moment enhancement increases to saturation with irradiation dose. Theenhanced magnetic moment decays exponentially to its value before the irradiation with a time constant of 5.2 months. The iron magnetic moment enhancement is attributed to the creation of vacancy clusters having a concentration of about 20 %, whereas the relaxation effects is attributed to the dissociation of these clusters.