Radiation Response of materials
(1) Radiation damage in nanostructured metals
Xinghang Zhang, Khalid Hattar, Youxing Chen, Lin Shao, Jin Li, Cheng Sun, Kaiyuan Yu, Nan Li, Mitra L Taheri, Haiyan Wang, Jian Wang, Michael Nastasi, Radiation damage in nanostructured metals, Progress in Materials Science, 96 (2018) 217-321.
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.
(2) Helium irradiation induced high strength nanotwinned Cu films
Cuncai Fan, Qiang Li, Jie Ding, Yanxiang Liang, Zhongxia Shang, Jin Li, Ruizhe Su, Jaehun Cho, Di Chen, Yongqiang Wang, Jian Wang, Haiyan Wang, Xinghang Zhang, Helium irradiation induced ultra-high strength nanotwinned Cu with nanovoids, Acta Materialia 177 (2019) 107-120.
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.
(3) Radiation damage in nanotwinned AgFe
J. Li, DY Xie, S Xue, C Fan, Y Chen, H Wang, J Wang, X. Zhang, Superior twin stability and radiation resistance of nanotwinned Ag solid solution alloy Acta Materialia, 151 (2018) 395-405.
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.
In-situ Radiation Studies
(1) 9R phase enabled superior radiation stability of twin boundaries in nanotwinned Cu-Fe
Cuncai Fan, Dongyue Xie, Jin Li, Zhongxia Shang, Youxing Chen, Sichuang Xue, Jian Wang et al. "9R phase enabled superior radiation stability of nanotwinned Cu alloys via in situ radiation at elevated temperature." Acta Materialia 167 (2019): 248-256.
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
(2) Radiation damage in nanoporous metals
J. Li, C. Fan, Q. Li, H. Wang, and X. Zhang. "In situ studies on irradiation resistance of nanoporous Au through temperature-jump tests." Acta Materialia 143 (2018): 30-42, Acta Materialia, 151 (2018) 395-405.
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.