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Title: Study of irradiation-induced amorphization in intermetallic compounds

Miscellaneous ·
OSTI ID:6906018

Irradiation-induced amorphization was studied in situ in the high voltage electron microscope interfaced to a tandem accelerator. Variation of elastic properties during irradiation was studied with Brillouin scattering spectroscopy, and its relation to amorphization were explored. Four important topics were investigated. (1) The temperature dependence of the critical dose for amorphization and its correlation with chemical disordering were studied in CuTi and Zr{sub 3}Al with 1-MeV electron irradiation from 10 to 295 K. Similar temperature dependence was observed in CuTi between the critical dose for amorphization and the chemical disordering rate. Chemical disordering is a major driving force for amorphization. The critical dose for amorphization of Zr{sub 3}Al was twenty times larger than that of CuTi and attributed to the differences in point defect mobility and ordering energy. (2) Projectile mass dependence of amorphization behavior was studied in CuTi irradiated with Ne{sup +},Kr{sup +},Xe{sup +}ions. The dose dependence of the amorphous volume fraction indicated that with increasing mass from Ne{sup +} to Kr{sup +} amorphization kinetics changes from the cascade overlap to the direct-impact amorphization. In relation to the kinetics variation, the critical temperature increased with increasing projectile mass and explained in terms of the thermal stability of the primary damage. (3) Effects of simultaneous and sequential irradiation with Kr+ and electrons were studied in CuTi and Zr{sub 3}Al. Both additive and retardation effects were observed depending on temperature and the electron-to-Kri dose rate ratio and explained as the interaction between point defects and cascade damages. (4) Study of elastic properties during Kr{sup +} irradiation revealed that in FeTi, a large dilation and shear modulus softening accompanied with chemical disordering preceded amorphization, but not observed in NiAl.

Research Organization:
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (USA)
OSTI ID:
6906018
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English