High-energy radiation damage in zirconia: modeling results

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866989· OSTI ID:1121817

Zarkadoula, Evangelia ^[1]; Devanathan, Ram ^[2]; Weber, William J ^[3]; Seaton, M ^[4]; Todorov, I T ^[4]; Nordlund, Kai ^[5]; Dove, Martin T ^[1]; Trachenko, Kostya ^[1]

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1. Queen Mary, University of London
2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
3. ORNL
4. Daresbury Laboratory, UK
5. University of Helsinki

Zirconia is viewed as a material of exceptional resistance to amorphization by radiation damage, and consequently proposed as a candidate to immobilize nuclear waste and serve as an inert nuclear fuel matrix. Here, we perform molecular dynamics simulations of radiation damage in zirconia in the range of 0.1-0.5 MeV energies with account of electronic energy losses. We nd that the lack of amorphizability co-exists with a large number of point defects and their clusters. These, importantly, are largely isolated from each other and therefore represent a dilute damage that does not result in the loss of long-range structural coherence and amorphization. We document the nature of these defects in detail, including their sizes, distribution and morphology, and discuss practical implications of using zirconia in intense radiation environments.

• 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: 1121817
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 8; ISSN 0021--8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Zirconia
molecular dynamics
electronic energy loss