Morphological stability of Cu-Nb nanocomposites under high-energy collision cascades

Journal Article · Mon Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4817785· OSTI ID:22218212

Zhang, Liang ^[1]; Demkowicz, Michael J. ^[2]

---

1. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)

We use molecular dynamics and phase field simulations to demonstrate that Cu-Nb multilayered nanocomposites with individual layer thicknesses above 2–4 nm remain morphologically stable when subjected to 100 keV collision cascades, characteristic of neutron or heavy ion irradiation. The probability of morphological instability rapidly increases as the layer thickness decreases to 1 nm, which we attribute to overlap of zones of liquid-like interdiffusion inside radiation-induced thermal spikes at neighboring interfaces in the multilayer.

• OSTI ID: 22218212
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
COLLISIONS
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
COPPER ALLOYS
HEAVY IONS
INSTABILITY
INTERFACES
ION BEAMS
IRRADIATION
KEV RANGE 10-100
LAYERS
LIQUIDS
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
MORPHOLOGY
NANOSTRUCTURES
NEUTRONS
NIOBIUM ALLOYS
STABILITY
THERMAL SPIKES
THICKNESS