“…Because of the excellent physicochemical properties for many industrial applications (hardness, chemical insensitivity, refractory behaviour, transparency over a wide wavelength range) of Al 2 O 3 , many investigations have been performed modifying the microstructural [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], surface state [8][9][10] and optical properties [11][12][13][14][15][16] induced in aAl 2 O 3 by ion irradiation in the electronic energy loss regime. These modifications result from complex interactions involving the slowing down process of the incident ions that induces defect creation and structural transformations in the host matrix [17].…”