Highlight: This review covers the radiation tolerance of nanostructured materials, and the benefit of various nanoscale defects that can benefit a materials response to radiation damage.
Highlight: This study explored the different response to irradiation in coarse grained (CG) and nanotwinned-nanovoid (NT-NV) Cu. It demonstrated that the NT-NV Cu had better radiation tolerance as it had lower He bubble density and lower lattice expansion than the CG Cu after irradiation. Also, the He bubbles decorate the twin boundaries in NT-NV Cu, leading to impressive strengths.
Highlight: This study demonstrates the ability of solute additions to stabilize twin boundaries in FCC metals (in this case Ag) during irradiation. In situ heavy ion irradiation studies show drastically improved irradiation stability of twin boundaries in NT Ag99Fe1 compared with NT Ag. Moreover, NT Ag99Fe1 has much smaller defect size and lower defect density than NT Ag. DFT simulations show that Fe solutes significantly improve the energy barrier for migration of twin boundaries in Ag. The substitutional Fe solutes improve irradiation resistance of Ag by changing the migration and aggregation behavior of irradiation-induced point defects from 1D/2D to 3D and accelerating the recombination of interstitials and vacancy through trapping and detrapping processes.
Highlight: This study shows, via in-situ Kr ion irradiation inside a transmission electron microscope, that 3 at. % Fe in epitaxial nanotwinned Cu (Cu97Fe3) significantly improves the thermal and radiation stability of nanotwins during radiation up to 5 dpa at 200 oC. Such enhanced stability of nanotwins is attributed to a diffuse 9R phase resulted from the dissociation of incoherent twin boundaries in nanotwinned Cu97Fe3. The stabilization of nanotwins opens up opportunity for the application of nanotwinned alloys for aggressive radiation environments
Highlight: This study shows that both defect density and nanopores evolve with irradiation temperature. Higher temperature results in lower defect density and reduced shrinkage rate of nanopores. The sink strength of nanopores as a function of temperature is estimated. Moreover, nanoporous Au exhibits significantly enhanced swelling resistance compared to coarse-grained Au.