Migration Mechanisms of Oxygen Interstitial Clusters in UO2
Understanding the migration kinetics of radiation-induced point defects and defect clusters is a key to predicting the microstructural evolution and mass transport in nuclear fuels. Although the diffusion kinetics of point defects in UO2 is well explored both experimentally and theoretically, the kinetics of defect clusters is not well understood. In this work the migration mechanisms of oxygen interstitial clusters of size one to five atoms (1Oi – 5Oi) in UO2 are investigated by temperature-accelerated dynamics simulations without any a priori assumptions of migration mechanisms. It is found that the migration paths of oxygen interstitial clusters are complex and non-intuitive and that multiple migration paths and barriers exist for some clusters. It is also found that the cluster migration barrier does not increase with increasing cluster size and its magnitude has the following order: 2Oi < 3Oi < 1Oi < 5Oi < 4Oi. Possible finite-size effects are checked with three different sized systems. The results show good agreement with other available experimental and theoretical data. In particular, the relatively large migration barriers of cuboctahedral clusters (4Oi and 5Oi) are in good agreement with the experimentally measured oxygen diffusion activation energy in U4O9, which is thought to contain many such clusters. The cluster migration sequence may explain the interesting relationship between the oxygen diffusivity and stoichiometry in UO2+x.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - SC
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1057705
- Report Number(s):
- INL/JOU-12-27046
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 25, Issue 1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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