Relationships between depth-resolved primary radiation damage, irradiation-induced nanostructure and nanoindentation response of ion-irradiated Fe-Cr and ODS Fe-Cr alloys

Abstract

• Irradiation-induced loops arise from displacement damage and injected interstitials. • Dislocation loops give rise to depth-dependent hardening. • The depth of maximum hardening and the substrate effect are correctly predicted. • The size of the plastic zone and the superposition rule are varied. • The most appropriate model version is material-specific. Ion irradiations are indispensable for exploring radiation effects on materials, for example, radiation hardening. However, the extraction of radiation hardening as function of displacement damage from the nanoindentation (NI) response of self-ion-irradiated metallic alloys is a challenge. In particular, recent attempts suffer from interference with contributions arising from injected self-interstitial atoms. Moreover, instances of available microstructural evidence and NI results reported for the same material and same irradiation are rare. In order to tackle these issues, the depth-dependent irradiated microstructure and the NI response were analyzed for Fe-9Cr and oxide dispersion strengthened Fe-Cr alloys irradiated with 5 MeV iron ions. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy indicated the appearance of irradiation-induced dislocation loops but no other types of visible microstructural changes. NI indicated maxima of the radiation hardening as function of contact depth. Links between the depth-resolved primary radiation damage, the observed depth-dependent characteristics of loops and the measured hardening are considered. As a key point, the link between loops and hardening requires the integration of the local hardening contributions over the indentation plastic zone. Calculations and measurements are compared with respect to both the depth position of maximum hardening and the substrate effect. The role of the model assumptions is discussed with special emphasis on the plastic zone size and the superposition of hardening contributions. The latter is found to be material-specific. The model also allows hardening contributions arising from displacement damage and injected interstitials to be separated.