Download This PaperThe Effect of Flux on Ion Irradiation-Induced Precipitation in AISI-316L: An In-Situ TEM Study
25 Pages Posted: 15 Apr 2020
Abstract
Thin foils of AISI 316L stainless steel were irradiated in-situ in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) with 325 keV Xe ions at 550°C at three different fluxes to study flux effects. The kinetics of the radiation-induced precipitation and the evolution of the precipitates were found to be correlated with the irradiation flux. At lower fluxes (1 and 2 × 1012 ions·cm-2·s-1), cascade mixing played an important role in the accumulation of point defects within the austenite matrix, facilitating the formation of clusters which act as sinks for heterogeneous nucleation of precipitates with high areal density. At the highest flux (4 × 1012 ions·cm-2·s-1) the cascade mixing favours the recombination of vacancies and interstitials which supresses the growth of existing precipitates beyond a certain total damage level. The results agree with a previous radiation-induced precipitation (RIP) model proposed by Wiedersich, Okamoto and Lam and further studied by Bruemmer, but a small modification is proposed when the flux is closer to the vacancy-interstitial recombination limit.
Keywords: in-situ TEM, ion irradiation, radiation damage, irradiation flux
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