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Amorphous ceramics are a unique class of materials with unusual properties and functionalities. While these materials are known to crystallize when subjected to thermal annealing, they have sometimes been observed to crystallize athermally when exposed to extreme irradiation environments. Because irradiation is almost universally understood to introduce disorder into materials, these observations of irradiation-induced ordering or crystallization are unusual and may partially explain the limited research into this phenomenon. However, the archival literature presents a growing body of evidence of these irradiation-induced amorphous-to-crystalline (a-to-c) phase transformations in ceramics. In this perspective, the summary and review of examples from the literature of irradiation-induced a-to-c transformations for various classifications of ceramics are provided. This work will highlight irradiation conditions and material parameters that appear most influential for activating a-to-c transformations, identify trends, examine possible mechanisms, and discuss the impact of a-to-c transformations on material properties. Finally, future research directions that will enable researchers to harness a-to-c transformations to tailor materials behaviors will be provided. 

Understanding of structural and morphological evolution in nanomaterials is critical in tailoring their functionality for applications such as energy conversion and storage. Here, we examine irradiation effects on the morphology and structure of amorphous TiO2 nanotubes in comparison with their crystalline counterpart, anatase TiO2 nanotubes, using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), in situ ion irradiation TEM, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Anatase TiO2 nanotubes exhibit morphological and structural stability under irradiation due to their high concentration of grain boundaries and surfaces as defect sinks. On the other hand, amorphous TiO2 nanotubes undergo irradiation-induced crystallization, with some tubes remaining only partially crystallized. The partially crystalline tubes bend due to internal stresses associated with densification during crystallization as suggested by MD calculations. These results present a novel irradiation-based pathway for potentially tuning structure and morphology of energy storage materials.