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Title: Softening due to Grain Boundary Cavity Formation and its Competition with Hardening in Helium Implanted Nanocrystalline Tungsten

Abstract

The unique ability of grain boundaries to act as effective sinks for radiation damage plays a significant role in nanocrystalline materials due to their large interfacial area per unit volume. Leveraging this mechanism in the design of tungsten as a plasma-facing material provides a potential pathway for enhancing its radiation tolerance under fusion-relevant conditions. In this study, we explore the impact of defect microstructures on the mechanical behavior of helium ion implanted nanocrystalline tungsten through nanoindentation. Softening was apparent across all implantation temperatures and attributed to bubble/cavity loaded grain boundaries suppressing the activation barrier for the onset of plasticity via grain boundary mediated dislocation nucleation. An increase in fluence placed cavity induced grain boundary softening in competition with hardening from intragranular defect loop damage, thus signaling a new transition in the mechanical behavior of helium implanted nanocrystalline tungsten.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
  4. Middle East Technical Univ., Ankara (Turkey)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1423975
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-26895
Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Cunningham, W. Streit, Gentile, Jonathan M., El-Atwani, Osman, Taylor, Chase N., Efe, Mert, Maloy, Stuart A., and Trelewicz, Jason R.. Softening due to Grain Boundary Cavity Formation and its Competition with Hardening in Helium Implanted Nanocrystalline Tungsten. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20990-1.
Cunningham, W. Streit, Gentile, Jonathan M., El-Atwani, Osman, Taylor, Chase N., Efe, Mert, Maloy, Stuart A., & Trelewicz, Jason R.. Softening due to Grain Boundary Cavity Formation and its Competition with Hardening in Helium Implanted Nanocrystalline Tungsten. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20990-1
Cunningham, W. Streit, Gentile, Jonathan M., El-Atwani, Osman, Taylor, Chase N., Efe, Mert, Maloy, Stuart A., and Trelewicz, Jason R.. Tue . "Softening due to Grain Boundary Cavity Formation and its Competition with Hardening in Helium Implanted Nanocrystalline Tungsten". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20990-1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1423975.
@article{osti_1423975,
title = {Softening due to Grain Boundary Cavity Formation and its Competition with Hardening in Helium Implanted Nanocrystalline Tungsten},
author = {Cunningham, W. Streit and Gentile, Jonathan M. and El-Atwani, Osman and Taylor, Chase N. and Efe, Mert and Maloy, Stuart A. and Trelewicz, Jason R.},
abstractNote = {The unique ability of grain boundaries to act as effective sinks for radiation damage plays a significant role in nanocrystalline materials due to their large interfacial area per unit volume. Leveraging this mechanism in the design of tungsten as a plasma-facing material provides a potential pathway for enhancing its radiation tolerance under fusion-relevant conditions. In this study, we explore the impact of defect microstructures on the mechanical behavior of helium ion implanted nanocrystalline tungsten through nanoindentation. Softening was apparent across all implantation temperatures and attributed to bubble/cavity loaded grain boundaries suppressing the activation barrier for the onset of plasticity via grain boundary mediated dislocation nucleation. An increase in fluence placed cavity induced grain boundary softening in competition with hardening from intragranular defect loop damage, thus signaling a new transition in the mechanical behavior of helium implanted nanocrystalline tungsten.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-20990-1},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {2}
}

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Cited by: 27 works
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Tensile properties of nanocrystalline tantalum from molecular dynamics simulations
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Impact of low energy helium irradiation on plasma facing metals
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Hydrogen and helium trapping in tungsten under single and sequential irradiations
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journal, July 2013


Strength and ductility improvement of ultrafine-grained tungsten produced by equal-channel angular pressing
journal, December 2014


Primary radiation damage near grain boundary in bcc tungsten by molecular dynamics simulations
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Helium bubble formation in ultrafine and nanocrystalline tungsten under different extreme conditions
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Low energy helium ion irradiation induced nanostructure formation on tungsten surface
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Defect-interface interactions
journal, October 2015


Nanostructured metals under irradiation
journal, June 2009


Molecular dynamics simulation study of the effect of grain size on the deformation behavior of nanocrystalline body-centered cubic iron
journal, March 2011


Microstructure refinement of tungsten by surface deformation for irradiation damage resistance
journal, January 2014


Is Stress Concentration Relevant for Nanocrystalline Metals?
journal, June 2011

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  • DOI: 10.1021/nl201083t

Direct Observation of Sink-Dependent Defect Evolution in Nanocrystalline Iron under Irradiation
journal, May 2017


Grain-size dependence of plastic deformation in nanocrystalline Fe
journal, June 2003

  • Jang, D.; Atzmon, M.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 93, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1569035

Enhanced radiation tolerance in nanocrystalline MgGa2O4
journal, June 2007

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  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2753098

Morphology of micro-cavities in nickel during Helium bombardment and post-irradiation annealing
journal, April 1988


Radiation damage near grain boundaries
journal, October 2003


Controlling Radiation Damage
journal, March 2010


Designing Radiation Resistance in Materials for Fusion Energy
journal, July 2014


Measurement of hardness and elastic modulus by instrumented indentation: Advances in understanding and refinements to methodology
journal, January 2004


Irradiation damage of single crystal, coarse-grained, and nanograined copper under helium bombardment at 450 °C
journal, October 2013

  • Han, Weizhong; Fu, E. G.; Demkowicz, Michael J.
  • Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 28, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2013.283

Works referencing / citing this record:

Interface Effects on He Ion Irradiation in Nanostructured Materials
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