Abstract
A study of heavy-ion damage in Fe and Fe–Cr alloys started in Part 1 Citation1 was continued with an investigation of damage development in UHP Fe and Fe–8%Cr at higher doses up to 2 × 1019 ions m−2 (∼13 dpa). In thin-foil irradiations with 150 keV Fe+ ions at 300°C and room temperature (RT), more complex microstructures started to develop in thicker regions of the foils at doses greater than about 2 × 1018 ions m−2, apparently involving cooperative interaction, alignment and coalescence of smaller loops. First strings of loops all with the same ½⟨111⟩ Burgers vectors formed. In UHP Fe irradiated at 300°C the damage then developed into colonies of resolvable interstitial loops with ½⟨111⟩ Burgers vectors. By a dose of 2 × 1019 ions m−2, large (several hundred nanometre) finger-shaped loops with large shear components had developed by the growth and subsequent coalescence of smaller loops. Similar but finer-scale damage structures developed in UHP Fe irradiated at RT and in Fe–8%Cr irradiated at both RT and 300°C.
Acknowledgements
The IVEM-Tandem Facility (within the Electron Microscopy Center at ANL) is supported by the US DOE Office of Science and operated under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357 by UChicago Argonne, LLC. We thank Dr. A. Liu and P Baldo of Argonne National Lab for their help in using this facility. Part of this work was funded by the UKAEA, Culham Science Centre. Ex situ experiments on UHP Fe were supported by the European Commission in the framework of the PERFECT Project. We also thank Prof. J. Le Coze of the École de Mines de Saint Étienne for the provision of UHP iron and Prof S. G. Roberts and Dr. S. L. Dudarev for helpful discussions.
Notes
Note
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