Radiation damage and copper distribution in 14 MeV copper-ion-implanted nickel — TEM and AEM analyses in cross-section

doi:10.1016/0304-3991(89)90256-8

Ultramicroscopy

Volume 29, Issues 1–4, 2 May 1989, Pages 284-290

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3991(89)90256-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

14 MeV Cu ions have been implanted into a pure Ni specimen at 500 ° C to a dose of 6 × 10²⁰ ions/m². TEM and AEM analyses were performed in cross-section to investigate the effect of implanted Cu on the formation of defect clusters. The TEM result has been compared with that obtained in another Ni specimen which was irradiated with 14 MeV Ni ions to the same damage level at the same temperature. While voids formed throughout the entire damage range in the Ni ion-irradiated sample, they mainly appeared at the near-surface region and at the peak damage depth in the Cu-ion-implanted specimen. A high density of dislocation loops formed in the region where implanted Cu ions were detected by AEM. The AEM result of the implanted Cu concentration profile has been compared with a Monte Carlo calculation.

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Motion of point defects is a fundamental process that governs microstructure and properties of materials. Here, we examine the near-surface and grain boundary cavity swelling depth profiles in neutron- and ion-irradiated simple metals (Cu, Ni, and Fe-Cr) and investigate diffusional broadening of implanted Ni ions in Fe-Cr alloys. Vacancy migration energies and radiation-enhanced diffusion were experimentally estimated. Cavity denuded zone widths near planar sinks are shown to be dependent on temperature, damage rate, balance of point defects and sinks, and vacancy migration energies. An enhanced cavity swelling zone adjacent to the void-denuded zone was observed in specimens with low to moderate sink strength and interpreted as evidence of 1D gliding interstitial clusters. Radiation-enhanced diffusional broadening of implanted Ni ions (at 400–550 °C) in Fe and Fe-Cr was up to 250 nm toward the surface, which leads to a much broader near-peak-damage region where cavity swelling is suppressed. Diffusional broadening of implanted ions is calculated to be similarly pronounced for self-ion irradiations, particularly near the peak and higher swelling temperature regimes. Adequately high ion energies (∼8–15 MeV) are recommended for ion-irradiation studies to provide a sufficiently broad midrange safe analysis region with minimized surface and injected ion effects.
Modeling the impact of radiation-enhanced diffusion on implanted ion profiles
2018, Journal of Nuclear Materials
Citation Excerpt :
However, whereas this parameter is easy to calculate from standard kinetic rate theory for a variety of recombination-dominant or sink-dominant conditions, experimental evaluations of RED performed under nominally identical conditions on nominally identical materials vary by up to three orders of magnitude. This is illustrated by Fig. 8 which presents reported RED coefficients as a function of dose rate [4,5,51,54,69,92]. The data within the shaded regions were obtained at similar homologous temperatures of 0.35–0.5 TM, where TM is the melting temperature.
Ion irradiations are a valuable research tool for exploring radiation effects in materials. However, it is well recognized that the implanted ions can artificially modify the radiation damage evolution, e.g., enhancing amorphization processes at low irradiation temperatures and suppressing void swelling at elevated temperatures. Therefore, the implanted ion region should be avoided for most studies of ion irradiated materials. Due to increased interest in high damage, high temperature ion irradiations studying radiation effects in materials for proposed high dose Generation IV fission and fusion energy applications, it is crucial to quantify the extent of diffusional broadening of the implanted ion profile for a variety of temperatures, irradiation fluxes, and sink strengths. The present study summarizes computational analyses of thermal and depth-dependent radiation enhanced diffusion (RED) on diffusion broadening of the implanted ion profiles in Fe and Ni for a variety of irradiation conditions. For a low assumed RED coefficient (10⁻²⁰-10⁻¹⁹ m²/s and 10⁻⁴ and 10⁻³ peak dpa/s, respectively) or high flux, broadening of the as-implanted ion profile is very small and a suitable artifact-free midrange region for analysis exists for ion energies above 5–6 MeV at 100 peak dpa. At high RED coefficients (10⁻¹⁹-10⁻¹⁸ m²/s and 10⁻⁴ and 10⁻³ peak dpa/s, respectively) broadening is much more significant, and no valid region for investigation exists below 6–8 MeV ion energies at any damage level >50 dpa. While increasing flux decreases irradiation time, it also increases the RED coefficient; these effects mostly offset except under recombination-dominant conditions. For typical high dose irradiation studies of void swelling that exceed ∼100 displacement per atom (dpa), ion energies >6–8 MeV must be employed in order to achieve suitable artifact-free midrange irradiation analysis regions, depending on the material system. Analysis of amorphization/precipitation require even higher energies (>10 MeV).
Opportunities and limitations for ion beams in radiation effects studies: Bridging critical gaps between charged particle and neutron irradiations
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Ion beams are indispensible for understanding radiation effects in materials, enabling access to conditions challenging to perform with neutrons. However, ion irradiations can produce potential artifacts from beam rastering, high displacement damage rate effective “temperature shifts”, subthreshold collisions, high ionization rates, and non-monoenergetic primary knock-on atom energies. The influence of near-surface denuded zones and implanted ion effects is analyzed, including diffusional broadening effects. At high ion irradiation energies, “swift heavy ion” effects can lead to enhanced defect production or recovery. Ion energies of 10–50 MeV typically offer a good compromise for minimizing near-surface, implanted ion, and swift heavy ion effects.
Atomic-level heterogeneity and defect dynamics in concentrated solid-solution alloys
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While many possible explanations are proposed, no unified underlying mechanisms or validations are currently available. A study of the NiCu system displays a remarkable resistance to void formation under irradiation [36,37]. In pure Ni samples, voids form throughout the entire damage range under Ni irradiation, but only appear at the near-surface region and at the peak damage depth under Cu irradiation.
Performance enhancement of structural materials in extreme radiation environments has been actively investigated for many decades. Traditional alloys, such as steel, brass and aluminum alloys, normally contain one or two principal element(s) with a low concentration of other elements. While these exist in either a mixture of metallic phases (multiple phases) or in a solid solution (single phase), limited or localized chemical disorder is a common characteristic of the main matrix. Fundamentally different from traditional alloys, recently developed single-phase concentrated solid-solution alloys (CSAs) contain multiple elemental species in equiatomic or high concentrations with different elements randomly arranged on a crystalline lattice. Due to the lack of ordered elemental arrangement in these CSAs, they exhibit significant chemical disorder and unique site-to-site lattice distortion. While it is well recognized in traditional alloys that minor additions lead to enhanced radiation resistance, it remains unclear in CSAs how atomic-level heterogeneity affects defect formation, damage accumulation, and microstructural evolution. These knowledge gaps have acted as roadblocks to the development of future-generation energy technology. CSAs with a simple crystal structure, but complex chemical disorder, are unique systems that allow us, through replacing principal alloying elements and modifying concentrations, to study how compositional complexity influences defect dynamics, and to bridge the knowledge gaps through understanding intricate electronic- and atomic-level interactions, mass and energy transfer processes, and radiation resistance performance. Recent advances in defect dynamics and irradiation performance of CSAs are reviewed, intrinsic chemical effects on radiation performance are discussed, and direction for future studies is suggested.
The effect of injected interstitials on void formation in self-ion irradiated nickel containing concentrated solid solution alloys
2017, Journal of Nuclear Materials
Citation Excerpt :
The overall swelling quoted in Table 2 is a comparison among different alloys and serves as a reference for detailed investigation of depth dependent swelling. Also note that the swelling calculated for nickel in this study has the highest amount of documented swelling for heavy ion irradiation using a rastered beam, whereas the studies conducted previously for pure nickel mainly used a defocused beam [26,27]. It should be pointed out that the swelling in nickel has the tendency to saturate with increasing dose, as has been observed in several neutron irradiation studies [1,28–30].
Pure nickel and three nickel containing single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys (SP-CSAs) have been irradiated using 3 MeV Ni²⁺ ions at $500 °C$ to fluences of $1.5 \times 10^{16}$ and $5.0 \times 10^{16} c m^{- 2}$ . The radiation-induced voids were characterized using cross sectional transmission electron microscopy that distributions of voids and dislocation loops were presented as a function of depth. A various degree of void suppression was observed on the tested samples and a defect clusters migration mechanism was proposed for NiCo. In order to sufficiently understand the defect dynamics in these SP-CSAs, the injected interstitial effect has been taken into account along with the 1-dimentional (1-D) and 3-dimentional (3-D) interstitial movement mechanisms.
Direct Observation of Defect Range and Evolution in Ion-Irradiated Single Crystalline Ni and Ni Binary Alloys
2016, Scientific Reports

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Radiation damage and copper distribution in 14 MeV copper-ion-implanted nickel — TEM and AEM analyses in cross-section

Abstract

Nucl. Instr. Methods

J. Nucl. Mater.

J. Nucl. Mater.

J. Nucl. Mater.

J. Nucl. Mater.

Ultramicroscopy

Surface Sci.

Radiation Effects