Direct observations of the primary state of radiation damage of ion-irradiated tungsten and platinum

Abstract

A brief summary of the major results of Cornell work on the primary state of radiation damage in ion-irradiated tungsten and plantinum is presented. The primary research tool for this research is the field-ion microscope (FIM). The FIM is ideally suited for this research because of its excellent atomic resolution and the ability to examine the interior of the specimens as a result of the field-evaporation effect. This paper summarizes, in outline form: (1) the main experimental programs; (2) the principal experimental quantities determined from the analyses performed on all the individual depleted zones (DZs) observed; (3) a number of the more important results and conclusions concerning the vacancy structure of DZs; and (4) the three-dimensional spatial distribution of self-interstitial atoms detected around DZs in tungsten which had been irradiated and examined in situ at <10 K.