Abstract
Seeking nuclear materials that possess a high resistance to particle irradiation damage is a long-standing issue. Permanent defects, induced by irradiation, are primary structural changes, the accumulation of which will lead to structural damage and performance degradation in crystalline materials served in nuclear plants. In this work, structural responses of neutron irradiation in metallic glasses (MGs) have been investigated by making a series of experimental measurements, coupled with simulations in ZrCu amorphous alloys. It is found that, compared with crystalline alloys, MGs have some specific structural responses to neutron irradiation. Although neutron irradiation can induce transient vacancy-like defects in MGs, they are fully annihilated after structural relaxation by rearrangement of free volumes. In addition, the rearrangement of free volumes depends strongly on constituent elements. In particular, the change in free volumes occurs around the Zr atoms, rather than the Cu centers. This implies that there is a feasible strategy for identifying glassy materials with high structural stability against neutron irradiation by tailoring the microstructures, the systems, or the compositions in alloys. This work will shed light on the development of materials with high irradiation resistance.
Highlights
Designing nuclear materials that possess a high resistance to particle irradiation damage has been the subject of intense interest[1,2,3,4,5]
Some open questions are raised: 1) will most of the irradiation-induced vacancy-like defects be annihilated by excitated atoms, just like vacancies annihilated by interstitials incrystalline alloys? 2) or will the vacancy-like defects distribute randomly in the bulk without any annihilation? 3) if annihilation of vacancy-like defects occurs, what is the evolution of microstructure in metallic glasses (MGs)? Addressing these issues will be helpful for determining the structural mechanism of the resistance against particle irradiation damage in glassy alloys
Since we have revealed that the arrangement of free volumes is an intrinsic irradiation-induced structural behavior in MGs, it is feasible to enhance the resistance against irradiation in glassy materials by designing alloy systems or compositions with constituent elements that are less sensitive to the arrangement of free volumes
Summary
Neutron irradiation can induce transient vacancy-like defects in MGs, they are fully annihilated after structural relaxation by rearrangement of free volumes. The change in free volumes occurs around the Zr atoms, rather than the Cu centers This implies that there is a feasible strategy for identifying glassy materials with high structural stability against neutron irradiation by tailoring the microstructures, the systems, or the compositions in alloys. During service in fission reactors, the failures of nuclear materials are usually observed, in terms of swelling, hardening, amorphization, and embrittlement[6,7] They are caused by the particle irradiation-induced changes of micro- to macroscopic-scale structures[8]. Addressing these issues will be helpful for determining the structural mechanism of the resistance against particle (such as neutron) irradiation damage in glassy alloys. It is found that there are some unique structural responses of irradiation damages in this class of glassy materials
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