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Abstract Effects of electronic to nuclear energy losses (S_e/S_n) ratio on damage evolution in defective KTaO₃have been investigated by irradiating pre-damaged single crystal KTaO₃with intermediate energy O ions (6 MeV, 8 MeV and 12 MeV) at 300 K. By exploring these processes in pre-damaged KTaO₃containing a fractional disorder level of 0.35, the results demonstrate the occurrence of a precursory stage of damage production before the onset of damage annealing process in defective KTaO₃that decreases with O ion energy. The observed ionization-induced annealing process by ion channeling analysis has been further mirrored by high resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis. In addition, the reduction of disorder level is accompanied by the broadening of the disorder profiles to greater depth with increasing ion fluence, and enhanced migration is observed with decreasing O ion energy. SinceS_e(∼3.0 keV nm⁻¹) is nearly constant for all 3 ion energies across the pre-damaged depth, the difference in behavior is due to the so-called ‘velocity effect’: the lower ion velocity below the Bragg peak yields a confined spread of the electron cascade and hence an increased energy deposition density. The inelastic thermal spike calculation has further confirmed the existence of a velocity effect, not previously reported in KTaO₃or very scarcely reported in other materials for which the existence of ionization-induced annealing has been reported. In other words, understanding of ionization-induced annealing has been advanced by pointing out that ion velocity effect governs the healing of pre-existing defects, which may have significant implication for the creation of new functionalities in KTaO₃through atomic-level control of microstructural modifications, but may not be limited to KTaO₃.