Investigation of interactions between defect clusters in stainless steels by in situ irradiation at elevated temperatures

Free surface impact on radiation damage in pure nickel by in-situ self-ion irradiation: can it be avoided?

“…Two KBF images are taken at the same position 12 before and after tilting beta angle ~17° keeping the same diffraction conditions. The depth of a loop h is calculated by [4]:…”

“…The depth distribution of radiation-induced defects in thin foils has been investigated in several materials [1,4,19,38,52,53] to better describe irradiated microstructures and understand the mechanism of the defect formation. In the literature, the thickness of depleted zones was found to be about 12 nm at 300°C and 20 nm at 400°C in Ni under Ar + irradiation [1] for each side of the foil.…”

“…where G the PD production rate and Kr the recombination coefficient are constant. 𝐿 is thus proportional to 𝐷 𝑣 1 4 so proportional to exp(-Ev,m/(4kBT)). Experimental results of ln(L) (L=12/20/25/40/50 nm) in function of (4kBT) -1 for 400/450/510/550°C are plotted in Fig.…”

“…In-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a powerful tool to study the realtime microstructural evolution under irradiation and provides reliable details for atomicscale modeling in order to obtain valuable insight into dynamic mechanisms of cascade damage and defect evolution [1][2][3][4][5]. Despite significant advantages of in-situ irradiations, some issues still remain in the evaluation of the effects of free surfaces in thin foils.…”

“…Despite significant advantages of in-situ irradiations, some issues still remain in the evaluation of the effects of free surfaces in thin foils. Such effects are discussed in some studies in face-centered cubic (fcc) materials (nickel, copper, tungsten and austenitic stainless steels (ASSs)) [4,[6][7][8][9]. As strong sinks for point defects, free surfaces affect significantly the defect formation and evolution in thin-foil samples.…”