Kinetic theory of diffusion in the presence of irradiation

Abstract

Abstract In alloys subjected to irradiation damage, it is often found that some of the alloying elements become enriched in the regions adjacent to sinks, while other elements become depleted. Such segregation can significantly affect the properties of the material; so it is important to understand this phenomenon. The kinetic theory of diffusion has been developed to describe diffusion in dilute binary alloys, and expressions for the fluxes of intrinsic point defects and solute atoms in a number of different lattice structures have been obtained under thermal equilibrium conditions. In this paper, it is considered how this theory can be extended to the case of an irradiated material. We find that the theory can be extended in a straightforward manner. In most cases, the major influence of the irradiation is the substantial increase in the concentrations of vacancies and interstitials in the material. Correction terms which involve the production rate of intrinsic defects in the material are in general ve...