How relative defect migration energies drive contrasting temperature-dependent microstructural evolution in irradiated ceramics

Journal Article · 01 August 2018 · Physical Review Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.2.083605 · OSTI ID:1471359

Debelle, Aurelien ^[1]; Crocombette, Jean-Paul ^[2]; Boulle, Alexandre ^[3]; Martinez Saez, Enrique  ^[4]; Uberuaga, Blas P.  ^[4]; Bachiller-Perea, Diana ^[5]; Haddad, Yara ^[5]; Garrido, Frederico ^[5]; Thome, Lionel ^[5]; Behar, Moni ^[6]

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1. Univ. of Paris-Sud, Orsay (France). Centre for Nuclear Science and Matter Sciences (CSNSM); Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
2. Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Gif-sur-Yvette (France). Service de Recherche de Métallurgie Physique (SRMP)
3. Centre Europeen de la Ceramique, Limoges (France). Inst. de Recherche sur les Céramiques (IRCer)
4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
5. Univ. of Paris-Sud, Orsay (France). Centre for Nuclear Science and Matter Sciences (CSNSM)
6. Univ. Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil). Inst. de Física

Ceramic materials have become widely used in various fields of material science, and ceramic oxides such as cubic zirconia (c- ZrO₂) and magnesia (MgO) are candidate materials for nuclear energy applications. For the corresponding in-service conditions of these materials, there is a crucial need in studies at moderate or high temperatures of the physical phenomena underlying the damage buildup under irradiation. Here in the present work, we show, using x-ray diffraction, that these two materials exhibit a similar damage accumulation process under ion irradiation at fixed temperature. However, they display an unexpected opposite damaging rate to changes in the irradiation temperature. In fact, as the temperature is increased, the final damage state is reached earlier in c- ZrO₂ while it is delayed in MgO. Rate equation cluster dynamics simulations show that defect clustering is favored over defect recombination in c- ZrO₂, but the situation is reversed for MgO, explaining the observed opposite response to temperature of the two materials. This contrasting behavior can be rationalized in terms of nonequivalent interstitial versus vacancy defect migration energies in MgO. We finally demonstrate that these results allow for a qualitative prediction of the evolution of the experimental irradiation-induced disorder with temperature, henceforth potentially reducing the cost in selecting and developing ad hoc materials.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1471359
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-18-20961
• Journal Information: Physical Review Materials, Journal Name: Physical Review Materials Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 2; ISSN PRMHAR; ISSN 2475-9953
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English