Radiation damage in cubic-stabilized zirconia

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2013.02.041· OSTI ID:1089773

Costantini, Jean-Marc ^[1]; Beuneu, Francois ^[2]; Weber, William J ^[3]

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1. CEA, Saclay, France
2. Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France
3. ORNL

Cubic yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) can be used for nuclear applications as an inert matrix for actinide immobilization or transmutation. Indeed, the large amount of native oxygen vacancies leads to a high radiation tolerance of this material owing to defect recombination occurring in the atomic displacements cascades induced by fast neutron irradiation or ion implantations, as showed by Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Amorphization cannot be obtained in YSZ either by nuclear-collision or electronic-excitation damage, just like in urania. A kind of polygonization structure with slightly disoriented crystalline domains is obtained in both cases. In the first steps of damage, specific isolated point defects (like F+-type color centers) and point-defect clusters are produced by nuclear collisions with charged particles or neutrons. Further increase of damage leads to dislocation-loop formation, then to collapse of the dislocation network into a polygonization structure. For swift heavy ion irradiations, a similar polygonization structure is obtained above a threshold stopping power value of about 20-30 keV nm-1.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1089773
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 440, Issue 1-3; ISSN 0022-3115
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

zirconia
radiation effects
color centers