The impact of 230-MeV Xe¹³² ion irradiation on the structural, optical, and luminescent properties of YAG:Ce single crystals is investigated over a fluence range of 10¹¹–10¹⁴ ions/cm². Optical absorption; cathodo-, X-ray, and photoluminescence; and X-ray diffraction are employed to analyze radiation-induced changes. Irradiation leads to the formation of Frenkel (F, F⁺) and antisite defects and attenuates Ce³⁺ emission (via enhanced nonradiative processes and Ce³⁺ → Ce⁴⁺ recharging). A redistribution between the fast and slow components of the Ce³⁺-emission is considered. Excitation spectra show the suppression of exciton-related emission bands, as well as a shift of the excitation onset due to increased lattice disorder. XRD data confirm partial amorphization and a high level of local lattice disordering, both increasing with irradiation fluence. These findings provide insight into radiation-induced processes in YAG:Ce, which are relevant for its application in radiation–hard scintillation detectors.

The recovery of radiation damage induced by 231-MeV xenon ions with varying fluence (from 5 × 10¹¹ to 2 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻²) in α-Al₂O₃ (corundum) single crystals has been studied by means of isochronal thermal annealing of radiation-induced optical absorption (RIOA). The integral of elementary Gaussians (product of RIOA spectrum decomposition) OK has been considered as a concentration measure of relevant oxygen-related Frenkel defects (neutral and charged interstitial-vacancy pairs, F-H, F⁺-H⁻). The annealing kinetics of these four ion-induced point lattice defects has been modelled in terms of diffusion-controlled bimolecular recombination reactions and compared with those carried out earlier for the case of corundum irradiation by fast neutrons. The changes in the parameters of interstitial (mobile component in the recombination process) annealing kinetics—activation energy E and pre-exponential factor X—in ion-irradiated crystals are considered.