Electron beam-induced oxygen desorption in gamma-LiAlO(2).

Effects of electron irradiation damage in gamma-LiAlO(2) were analysed using energy loss near edge fine structure (ELNES) of the O K-edge. Simulations of the O K-fine structure by means of a density functional theory (DFT) code show that under the electron beam gamma-LiAlO(2) undergoes the following transformation: LiAlO(2)--> LiAl(5)O(8)--> Al(2)O(3). O K-edge spectra, which were recorded during this decomposition process, contain an additional peak at 531eV. This peak can be attributed to a pi( *)-transition, which is observed for molecular oxygen O(2). This result suggests that the electron beam-induced LiAlO(2) decomposition occurs through the loss of O(2).