Positron annihilation study of electron-irradiated FeCu and FeCuC alloys
- Kyushu Univ., Fukuoka (Japan)
This study is mainly aimed at understanding the fundamental process of the irradiation embrittlement observed in low alloy reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels used under neutron irradiation environments. For this purpose it has been recognized that the microstructural mechanism of the interaction between radiation-induced defects and some special minor element atoms in ferritic steels and the recovery process of the defect-impurity clusters must be fully investigated. In particular, attention has been focused on the role of copper, which is one of the minor elements in these steels, and many studies have been performed. It is known that in the ferrite matrix a copper atom has a large size factor, namely, 17.53% and the solubility limit is very low, especially at low temperatures. These facts suggest that copper atoms might form precipitates in the irradiated specimens with the help of radiation induced defects, especially vacancies. In the actual steels more complicated precipitates, which consist of copper, carbon and other impurity atoms, might be formed, in the presence of radiation defects, and again play a role in the trapping of vacancies and self-interstitial atoms (SIAs). In this situation positron annihilation measurements are a powerful technique, yielding atomic scale information, especially on very small vacancy type defects, incoherent precipitates and others, which are beyond the resolution limit of the electron microscopy. In the present study, therefore, positron annihilation lifetime measurements have been carried out for Fe-Cu and Fe-Cu-C alloy specimens of various concentrations by means of electron irradiation at 77K in order to clarify the fundamental process of the interaction between copper, carbon and vacancies.
- OSTI ID:
- 6470374
- Journal Information:
- Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia; (United States), Vol. 29:2; ISSN 0956-716X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COPPER ALLOYS
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
IRON ALLOYS
REACTOR VESSELS
BINARY ALLOY SYSTEMS
CARBON ADDITIONS
EMBRITTLEMENT
MICROSTRUCTURE
NEUTRONS
POSITRONS
STEELS
TERNARY ALLOY SYSTEMS
ALLOY SYSTEMS
ALLOYS
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
BARYONS
CONTAINERS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
LEPTONS
MATTER
NUCLEONS
RADIATION EFFECTS
220200* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Components & Accessories
360106 - Metals & Alloys- Radiation Effects
665100 - Nuclear Techniques in Condensed Matter Physics - (1992-)