| Summary: | Layered ternary Ti<sub>2</sub>SnC carbides have attracted significant attention because of their advantage as a M2AX phase to bridge the gap between properties of metals and ceramics. In this study, Ti<sub>2</sub>SnC materials were synthesized by two different methods—an unconventional low-energy ion facility (LEIF) based on Ar<sup>+</sup> ion beam sputtering of the Ti, Sn, and C targets and sintering of a compressed mixture consisting of Ti, Sn, and C elemental powders up to 1250 °C. The Ti<sub>2</sub>SnC nanocrystalline thin films obtained by LEIF were irradiated by Ar<sup>+</sup> ions with an energy of 30 keV to the fluence of 1.10<sup>15</sup> cm<sup>−2</sup> in order to examine their irradiation-induced resistivity. Quantitative structural analysis obtained by Cs-corrected high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) confirmed transition from ternary Ti<sub>2</sub>SnC to binary Ti<sub>0.98</sub>C carbide due to irradiation-induced β-Sn surface segregation. The nanoindentation of Ti<sub>2</sub>SnC thin nanocrystalline films and Ti<sub>2</sub>SnC polycrystalline powders shows that irradiation did not affect significantly their mechanical properties when concerning their hardness (H) and Young’s modulus (E). We highlighted the importance of the HAADF-STEM techniques to track atomic pathways clarifying the behavior of Sn atoms at the proximity of irradiation-induced nanoscale defects in Ti<sub>2</sub>SnC thin films.
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