skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The role of grain size in He bubble formation: Implications for swelling resistance

Journal Article · · Journal of Nuclear Materials

Here, nanocrystalline metals are postulated as radiation resistant materials due to their high defect and particle (e.g. Helium) sink density. Here, the performance of nanocrystalline iron films is investigated in-situ in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) using He irradiation at 700 K. Automated crystal orientation mapping is used in concert with in-situ TEM to explore the role of grain orientation and grain boundary character on bubble density trends. Bubble density as a function of three key grain size regimes is demonstrated. While the overall trend revealed an increase in bubble density up to a saturation value, grains with areas ranging from 3000 to 7500 nm2 show a scattered distribution. An extrapolated swelling resistance based on bubble size and areal density indicated that grains with sizes less than 2000 nm2 possess the greatest apparent resistance. Moreover, denuded zones are found to be independent of grain size, grain orientation, and grain boundary misorientation angle.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; SC0008274; AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1440488
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1460124
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-31194; TRN: US1900750
Journal Information:
Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 484, Issue C; ISSN 0022-3115
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 69 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (74)

Structural materials for fission & fusion energy journal November 2009
Plastic instability in polycrystalline metals after low temperature irradiation journal April 2004
Materials challenges in nuclear energy journal February 2013
The evolution of mechanical property change in irradiated austenitic stainless steels journal November 1993
Structural materials for Gen-IV nuclear reactors: Challenges and opportunities journal December 2008
Formation process of tungsten nanostructure by the exposure to helium plasma under fusion relevant plasma conditions journal August 2009
Effects of Low Energy and High Flux Helium/Hydrogen Plasma Irradiation on Tungsten as Plasma Facing Material journal June 2005
Surface damage in ultrafine and multimodal grained tungsten materials induced by low energy helium irradiation journal March 2013
Tungsten as material for plasma-facing components in fusion devices journal August 2011
High tensile ductility in a nanostructured metal journal October 2002
Microstructure and mechanical properties of super-strong nanocrystalline tungsten processed by high-pressure torsion journal September 2006
Development of Nanostructured Tungsten Based Materials Resistant to Recrystallization and/or Radiation Induced Embrittlement journal January 2013
Enhanced radiation tolerance in nanocrystalline MgGa2O4 journal June 2007
Radiation damage tolerant nanomaterials journal November 2013
In-situ TEM/heavy ion irradiation on ultrafine-and nanocrystalline-grained tungsten: Effect of 3 MeV Si, Cu and W ions journal January 2015
Interface Structure and Radiation Damage Resistance in Cu-Nb Multilayer Nanocomposites journal April 2008
Calculated grain size-dependent vacancy supersaturation and its effect on void formation journal April 1974
Radiation damage near grain boundaries journal October 2003
Controlling Radiation Damage journal March 2010
Ultrafine tungsten as a plasma-facing component in fusion devices: effect of high flux, high fluence low energy helium irradiation journal June 2014
Role of atomic structure on grain boundary-defect interactions in Cu journal June 2012
Efficient Annealing of Radiation Damage Near Grain Boundaries via Interstitial Emission journal March 2010
Effect of grain boundary character on sink efficiency journal October 2012
Radiation damage in helium ion irradiated nanocrystalline Fe journal June 2012
Nanostructured metals under irradiation journal June 2009
Impact of irradiation on the microstructure of nanocrystalline materials journal August 2004
Accumulation and recovery of defects in ion-irradiated nanocrystalline gold journal September 2001
Instability of irradiation induced defects in nanostructured materials journal May 1997
Atomic scale modelling of the primary damage state of irradiated fcc and bcc nanocrystalline metals journal June 2006
In Situ Study of Defect Migration Kinetics and Self-Healing of Twin Boundaries in Heavy Ion Irradiated Nanotwinned Metals journal April 2015
Helium bubble formation in ultrafine and nanocrystalline tungsten under different extreme conditions journal March 2015
In situ studies on radiation tolerance of nanotwinned Cu journal June 2016
In situ study of heavy ion irradiation response of immiscible Cu/Fe multilayers journal July 2016
Irradiation hardening of Fe–9Cr-based alloys and ODS Eurofer: Effect of helium implantation and iron-ion irradiation at 300 °C including sequence effects journal March 2016
Tungsten surface evolution by helium bubble nucleation, growth and rupture journal June 2013
Irradiation-tolerant nanostructured ferritic alloys: Transforming helium from a liability to an asset journal September 2010
Early stage damage of ultrafine-grained tungsten materials exposed to low energy helium ion irradiation journal April 2015
Defect-interface interactions journal October 2015
Helium bubble nucleation in bcc iron studied by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations journal April 2007
Diffusion coefficients and thermal stability of small helium–vacancy clusters in iron journal May 2007
A review of irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking journal August 1994
The influence of helium on the bulk properties of fusion reactor structural materials journal August 1984
Ab initio study of helium in α Fe : Dissolution, migration, and clustering with vacancies journal August 2005
High spatial resolution semi-automatic crystallite orientation and phase mapping of nanocrystals in transmission electron microscopes journal April 2011
Texture evolution in nanocrystalline iron films deposited using biased magnetron sputtering journal December 2014
Concurrent in situ ion irradiation transmission electron microscope journal November 2014
SRIM – The stopping and range of ions in matter (2010)
  • Ziegler, James F.; Ziegler, M. D.; Biersack, J. P.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 268, Issue 11-12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2010.02.091
journal June 2010
Cell Molecular Dynamics for Cascades (CMDC): A new tool for cascade simulation journal June 2015
Characterisation of radiation-damage microstructures by TEM journal October 1994
NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis journal June 2012
On the origin of deformation microstructures in austenitic stainless steel: part I—microstructures journal September 2001
Evolution of point defect clusters in pure iron under low-energy He+ irradiation journal May 2001
Self-trapping of helium in metals journal November 1981
Nucleation of helium bubbles on dislocations, dislocation networks and dislocations in grain boundaries during 600 MeV proton irradiation of aluminium journal August 1984
Parameterization of ion channeling half-angles and minimum yields journal March 2016
Atomistic simulation of damage accumulation and amorphization in Ge journal February 2015
Motion of swift charged particles, as influenced by strings of atoms in crystals journal September 1964
THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNELING ON Cu SINGLE‐CRYSTAL SPUTTERING journal April 1966
Ion channeling effects on the focused ion beam milling of Cu
  • Kempshall, B. W.; Schwarz, S. M.; Prenitzer, B. I.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 19, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1368670
journal January 2001
Grain boundary character dependence of radiation-induced segregation in a model Ni–Cr alloy journal March 2015
Anisotropic radiation-induced segregation in 316L austenitic stainless steel with grain boundary character journal April 2014
Microstructure of ion irradiated ceramic insulators journal June 1994
Influence of Grain Boundary Structure on Bubble Formation Behaviour in Helium Implanted Copper journal February 1996
Helium trapping at dislocations, precipitates and grain boundaries journal January 1983
Helium bubble nucleation at grain boundaries journal December 1983
Radiation-enhanced recrystallization in copper alloys journal November 1986
Radiation-induced recrystallization, its cause and consequences in heavy-ion irradiated 20% cold-drawn steels of type 1.4970 journal January 1983
Ion-beam-induced crystallization of Ni50Al50 amorphous films journal February 1985
Recrystallization induced by electron irradiation of deformed nickel journal October 1974
The effect of fast neutron irradiation on the recrystallization of cold-rolled (110)[] oriented copper crystals journal June 1974
Mutation of vacancies to divacancies by helium trapping in molybdenum effect on the onset of percolation journal April 1978
The effect of radiation upon diffusion in metals journal February 1978
Mechanisms of helium interaction with radiation effects in metals and alloys: A review journal November 1983
Theory and experimental background on dimensional changes in irradiated alloys journal October 1994

Cited By (9)

Grain size threshold for enhanced irradiation resistance in nanocrystalline and ultrafine tungsten journal February 2017
Interplay Between Grain Boundaries and Radiation Damage journal March 2019
Direct Observation of Sink-Dependent Defect Evolution in Nanocrystalline Iron under Irradiation journal May 2017
He-ion induced surface morphology change and nanofuzz growth on hot tungsten surfaces journal December 2018
Understanding the release of helium atoms from nanochannel tungsten: a molecular dynamics simulation journal June 2019
Experimental and computational studies of the influence of grain boundaries and temperature on the radiation-induced damage and hydrogen behavior in tungsten journal July 2019
In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy book January 2019
In-Situ Helium Implantation and TEM Investigation of Radiation Tolerance to Helium Bubble Damage in Equiaxed Nanocrystalline Tungsten and Ultrafine Tungsten-TiC Alloy journal February 2020
Enhanced Radiation Tolerance of Tungsten Nanoparticles to He Ion Irradiation journal December 2018

Similar Records

Evidence of a temperature transition for denuded zone formation in nanocrystalline Fe under He irradiation
Journal Article · Tue Oct 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Materials Research Letters · OSTI ID:1440488

Implications of Microstructure in Helium-Implanted Nanocrystalline Metals
Journal Article · Thu Jun 09 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Materials · OSTI ID:1440488

Direct Observation of Sink-Dependent Defect Evolution in Nanocrystalline Iron under Irradiation
Journal Article · Fri May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Scientific Reports · OSTI ID:1440488