Structural relaxation of neutron irradiated SiO2 and crystalline Si

We propose to investigate the dynamics of neutron irradiated crystalline Si and vitreous SiO2 by means of X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS). We want to shed light on the following points: 1) X-rays and neutrons give rise or not to a similar damage effect on materials? 2) does neutron irradiated SiO2 lie in a higher location of the Potential Energy Landscape (PEL) with respect to the pristine material? 3) what is the relationship between the sample resistivity and the presence or absence of the radiolysis process? Clarification of these points is necessary to acquire a more in depth understanding of the nature of the X-ray induced dynamics as well as the beam driven transformations in crystals and glasses.