Achieving Radiation Tolerance through Non-Equilibrium Grain Boundary Structures

Vetterick, Gregory A.; Gruber, Jacob; Suri, Pranav K.; Baldwin, Jon K.; Kirk, Marquis A.; Baldo, Pete; Wang, Yong Q.; Misra, Amit; Tucker, Garritt J.; Taheri, Mitra L.

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-12407-2

Achieving Radiation Tolerance through Non-Equilibrium Grain Boundary Structures

Journal Article · Mon Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12407-2· OSTI ID:1624341

Vetterick, Gregory A. ^[1]; Gruber, Jacob ^[2]; Suri, Pranav K. ^[2]; Baldwin, Jon K. ^[3]; Kirk, Marquis A. ^[4]; Baldo, Pete ^[4]; Wang, Yong Q. ^[5]; Misra, Amit ^[3]; Tucker, Garritt J. ^[2]; Taheri, Mitra L. ^[2]

Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; DOE/OSTI
Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); IVEM-Tandem Facility
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Ion Beam Materials Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division

Many methods used to produce nanocrystalline (NC) materials leave behind non-equilibrium grain boundaries (GBs) containing excess free volume and higher energy than their equilibrium counterparts with identical 5 degrees of freedom. Since non-equilibrium GBs have increased amounts of both strain and free volume, these boundaries may act as more efficient sinks for the excess interstitials and vacancies produced in a material under irradiation as compared to equilibrium GBs. The relative sink strengths of equilibrium and non-equilibrium GBs were explored by comparing the behavior of annealed (equilibrium) and as-deposited (non-equilibrium) NC iron films on irradiation. These results were coupled with atomistic simulations to better reveal the underlying processes occurring on timescales too short to capture using in situ TEM. After irradiation, NC iron with non-equilibrium GBs contains both a smaller number density of defect clusters and a smaller average defect cluster size. Simulations showed that excess free volume contribute to a decreased survival rate of point defects in cascades occurring adjacent to the GB and that these boundaries undergo less dramatic changes in structure upon irradiation. These results suggest that non-equilibrium GBs act as more efficient sinks for defects and could be utilized to create more radiation tolerant materials in future.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0008274

OSTI ID:: 1624341

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 7; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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