Radiation Damage Effects on Order-Disorder in Nickel-Manganese Alloys

Abstract

Effects of fast neutron irradiation in a nuclear reactor on order-disorder in a series of nickel-manganese alloys ranging from 16.5 to 31.9 atomic percent manganese have been studied by resistivity and magnetic induction measurements. Attainment of an ``irradiated state'' differing from either cold work or thermal disordering is suggested by comparison of exposure results on initially cold work disordered and initially thermally disordered Ni3Mn. In a region from 16.5 to approximately 22 percent manganese, thermally disordered alloys are markedly affected by irradiation. These effects also appear to be superposed on the disordering produced by irradiation of initially ordered alloys. From theoretical exponential dependence on period of irradiation, fast neutron disordering of Ni3Mn is determined by relating the Bragg and Williams order parameter quadratically with resistivity and linearly with magnetic induction. This leads to an estimate of 5000 for the ratio of the number of atomic replacements to primary collisions with neutrons of energy in excess of 0.5 Mev.