Abstract
Accelerator-based ion beam irradiation techniques have been used to study radiation effects in materials for decades. Although carbon contamination induced by ion beams in target materials is a well-known issue in some material systems, it has not been fully characterized nor quantified for studies in ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steels that are candidate materials for applications such as core structural components in advanced nuclear reactors. It is an especially important issue for this class of material because of the strong effect of carbon level on precipitate formation. In this paper, the ability to quantify carbon contamination using three common techniques, namely time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS), atom probe tomography (APT), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is compared. Their effectiveness and shortcomings in determining carbon contamination are presented and discussed. The corresponding microstructural changes related to carbon contamination in ion irradiated F/M steels are also presented and briefly discussed.
Highlights
Accelerator-based self-ion irradiation has been used to study radiation effects in solid materials for decades[1,2,3,4,5]
Because the extent of carbon contamination may vary from accelerator to accelerator, and because this is an emerging issue without a universal solution that guarantees no carbon contamination, it is important for anyone performing ion irradiations on steels or other materials strongly sensitive to carbon to assess whether carbon contamination has occurred in their specimens
Our measurements and observations suggest that SIMS depth profiling is undoubtedly the fastest and easiest technique described here to detect carbon contamination in ion irradiated F/M steels
Summary
Received: 21 August 2017 Accepted: 30 October 2017 Published: xx xx xxxx on Microstructure of Ferritic/ Martensitic Steels. Carbon contamination induced by ion beams in target materials is a well-known issue in some material systems, it has not been fully characterized nor quantified for studies in ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steels that are candidate materials for applications such as core structural components in advanced nuclear reactors It is an especially important issue for this class of material because of the strong effect of carbon level on precipitate formation. The ability to quantify carbon contamination using three common techniques, namely time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS), atom probe tomography (APT), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is compared Their effectiveness and shortcomings in determining carbon contamination are presented and discussed. Possible effects of carbon contamination on microstructural evolution are discussed
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