Absence of saturation of void growth in rate theory with anisotropic diffusion

Abstract

We present a first attempt at solution the problem of the growth of a single void in the presence of anisotropically diffusing radiation induced self-interstitial atom (SIA) clusters. In order to treat a distribution of voids we perform ensemble averaging over the positions of centres of voids using a mean-field approximation. In this way we are able to model physical situations in between the Standard Rate Theory (SRT) treatment of swelling (isotropic diffusion), and the purely 1-dimensional diffusion of clusters in the Production Bias Model. The background absorption by dislocations is however treated isotropically, with a bias for interstitial cluster absorption assumed similar to that of individual SIAs. We find that for moderate anisotropy, unsaturated void growth is characteristic of this anisotropic diffusion of clusters. In addition we obtain a higher initial void swelling rate than predicted by SRT whenever the diffusion is anisotropic.