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Amorphous boron carbide (a-BxC) networks consist of light elements, and their low atomic scattering factors makes structural analysis by x-ray diffraction difficult. Electron diffraction has an advantage of detecting the light elements, because of the strong interaction between the matter and electrons. We prepared a-BxC by ion beam technologies and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and characterized their structures via atomic pair-distribution functions derived from electron diffraction intensity profiles. It was found that a pentagonal pyramid is the most favorable cluster in a-B4C generated by ion irradiation, while C C homonuclear bonds were formed in the deposited a-BxC thin film. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy revealed that the a-BxC thin film possesses more carbon than B4C, which is responsible for the formation of the homonuclear bonds.

The development of advanced structural alloys with performance meeting the requirements of extreme environments in nuclear reactors has been long pursued. In the long history of alloy development, the search for metallic alloys with improved radiation tolerance or increased structural strength has relied on either incorporating alloying elements at low concentrations to synthesize so-called dilute alloys or incorporating nanoscale features to mitigate defects. In contrast to traditional approaches, recent success in synthesizing multicomponent concentrated solid-solution alloys (CSAs), including medium-entropy and high-entropy alloys, has vastly expanded the compositional space for new alloy discovery. Their wide variety of elemental diversity enables tunable chemical disorder and sets CSAs apart from traditional dilute alloys. The tunable electronic structure critically lowers the effectiveness of energy dissipation via the electronic subsystem. The tunable chemical complexity also modifies the scattering mechanisms in the atomic subsystem that control energy transport through phonons. The level of chemical disorder depends substantively on the specific alloying elements, rather than the number of alloying elements, as the disorder does not monotonically increase with a higher number of alloying elements. To go beyond our knowledge based on conventional alloys and take advantage of property enhancement by tuning chemical disorder, this review highlights synergistic effects involving valence electrons and atomic-level and nanoscale inhomogeneity in CSAs composed of multiple transition metals. Understanding of the energy dissipation pathways, deformation tolerance, and structural stability of CSAs can proceed by exploiting the equilibrium and non-equilibrium defect processes at the electronic and atomic levels, with or without microstructural inhomogeneities at multiple length scales. Knowledge of tunable chemical disorder in CSAs may advance the understanding of the substantial modifications in element-specific alloy properties that effectively mitigate radiation damage and control a material's response in extreme environments, as well as overcome strength-ductility trade-offs and provide overarching design strategies for structural alloys.

High entropy alloys (HEAs) are promising materials for various applications including nuclear reactor environments. Thus, understanding their behavior under irradiation and exposure to different environments is important. Here, two sets of near-equiatomic CoCrCuFeNi thin films grown on either SiO2/Si or Si substrates were irradiated at room temperature with 11.5 MeV Au ions, providing similar behavior to exposure to inert versus corrosion environments. The film grown on SiO2 had relatively minimal change up to peak damage levels above 500 dpa, while the film grown on Si began intermixing at the substrate–film interface at peak doses of 0.1 dpa before transforming into a multi-silicide film at higher doses, all at room temperature with minimal thermal diffusion. The primary mechanism is radiation-enhanced diffusion via the inverse Kirkendall and solute drag effects. The results highlight how composition and environmental exposure affect the stability of HEAs under radiation and give insights into controlling these behaviors.

Due to virtually no solubility, He atoms implanted or created inside materials tend to form bubbles, which are known to damage material properties through embrittlement. Higher He density in nano-sized bubbles was observed both experimentally and computationally in Ni ( 100 − x ) Fex-alloy samples compared to Ni. The bubbles in the Ni ( 100 − x ) Fex-alloys were observed to be faceted, whereas in elemental Ni they were more spherical. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that stacking fault structures formed around bubbles at maximum He density. Higher Fe concentrations stabilize stacking fault structures, suppress evolution of dislocation network around bubbles and suppress complete dislocation emission, leading to higher He density.

Coupling between electronic and nuclear energy dissipation in ion-irradiated, single crystal 4H-SiC has been investigated using Si, Ti, and Ni ions over a range of energies at 300 K, and irradiation damage accumulation is characterized using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy in channeling geometry. The damage production rate from nuclear energy loss (Sn) is observed to decrease with increasing electronic energy loss (Se) of the incident ions. A dynamic threshold (Se,th) in electronic energy loss is determined for each ion species, which defines two regions: i) Se > Se,th, where electronic energy dissipation fully suppresses damage production due to nuclear energy loss along incident ion paths, and ii) Se

Defect evolution under irradiation is investigated in a set of single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys (SP-CSAs) containing Ni with Co, Fe and/or Cr. We show that atomic segregation of Ni takes place already at very early stages of radiation damage in the 2-4 element SP-CSAs containing Fe or Cr, well below 1 dpa. We arrive at this conclusion by following the evolution of positron annihilation signals as a function of irradiation dose in single crystal samples, complemented by molecular dynamics simulations in the same model systems for high entropy alloys (HEAs). This manifestation of short-range order calls attention to composition fluctuations at the atomic level in irradiated HEAs. Ion irradiation may induce short-range order in certain alloys due to chemically biased elemental diffusion. The work highlights the necessity of updating the assumption of a totally random arrangement in the irradiated alloys, even though the alloys before irradiation have random arrangements of different chemical elements. (C) 2020 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Quantifying chemical compositions around nanovoids is a fundamental task for research and development of various materials. Atom probe tomography (APT) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) are currently the most suitable tools because of their ability to probe materials at the nanoscale. Both techniques have limitations, particularly APT, because of insufficient understanding of void imaging. Here, we employ a correlative APT and STEM approach to investigate the APT imaging process and reveal that voids can lead to either an increase or a decrease in local atomic densities in the APT reconstruction. Simulated APT experiments demonstrate the local density variations near voids are controlled by the unique ring structures as voids open and the different evaporation fields of the surrounding atoms. We provide a general approach for quantifying chemical segregations near voids within an APT dataset, in which the composition can be directly determined with a higher accuracy than STEM-based techniques., Atom probe tomography can image chemical composition at the nanoscale, but our understanding of how it images voids, or empty spaces, is still lacking. Here, the authors combine atom probe tomography, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and field-evaporation theory to show how voids are imaged and subsequently measured.

International audience; The synergistic effect of nuclear (Sn) and electronic (Se) energy loss observed in some ABO3 perovskites has attracted considerable attention due to the real possibility to modify various near-surface properties, such as the electronic and optical properties, by patterning ion tracks in the defective near-surface regions. In this study, we show that low-energy ion-induced disordering in conjunction with ionizing ion irradiation (18 MeV Si, 21 MeV Ni and 91.6 MeV Xe) is a promising approach for tailoring ion tracks in the near-surface of defective KTaO3. Experimental characterization and computer simulations reveal that the size of these latent ion tracks increases with Se and level of pre-existing damage. These results further reveal that the threshold Se value (Seth) for track creation increases with decreasing pre-damage level. The values of Seth increase from 5.02 keV nm−1, for a pre-existing fractional disorder of 0.53 in KTaO3, to 10.81 keV nm−1 for pristine KTaO3. Above these thresholds, amorphous latent tracks are produced due local melting and rapid quenching. Below a disorder fraction of 0.08 and Se ⩽ 6.68 keV nm−1, the synergistic effect is not active, and damage accumulation is suppressed due to a competing ionization-induced damage annealing process. These results indicate that, depending on Se and the amount of pre-existing damage, highly ionizing ions can either enhance or suppress damage accumulation in KTaO3, thus providing a pathway to tailoring defects states. Comprehending the conflicting roles of highly ionizing ions in defective ABO3 oxides is vital for understanding and predictive modeling of ion-solid interactions in complex oxides, as well as for achieving control over ion track size in the near-surface of defective KTaO3.

Irradiation of pre-damaged SrTiO3 with 2 MeV He, 1.2 MeV C, 5 MeV C and 12 MeV O ions reveals two regimes of ionization-induced recovery. For C and O ions, with electronic energy loss between 1.6 and 3 keV/nm, recovery cross-sections range from 0.27 to 0.38 nm2, and molecular dynamics confirms recovery related to ionization-induced thermal spikes via electron-phonon coupling. At lower electronic energy losses, recovery cross-sections decrease to about 5.5 × 10−4 nm2 for 2 MeV He ions and 1.0 × 10−5 nm2 for 200 keV electrons, which suggests recovery associated with local electronic excitation processes.

The role of the electronic system in high energy displacement cascades is explored. The energy exchange between the electronic and the atomic subsystem is described by the electron–phonon coupling. The electronic effects on the damage accumulation due to 100 keV Ni ion cascades in nickel, a prototype system to a large group of nickel-based high entropy alloys, are investigated for overlapping cascades. It is shown that the energy exchange between the two subsystems affects microstructure evolution, resulting in the formation of smaller clusters and more isolated defects. This effect is more significant for the vacancy cluster formation and size distribution.

To better understand defect structure and the evolution of irradiation-induced damage in single crystal Ni, in situ Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy in channeling geometry (RBS/C) is performed along the , , and axes with different probing beam energies. The RBS/C data reveal that damage evolution occurs in three steps. The first step at low doses (up to 0.09 dpa), characterized by a linear increase with dose, is related to the formation of point defects and small clusters. The second step in the intermediate dose range (0.09–0.4 dpa) shows a sublinear increase in disorder to saturation. This sublinear increase is due to the growth of defect clusters resulting from the interaction of irradiation-induced defects with already existing damage from previous ion impacts. The third step at high doses (0.4–13.39 dpa) exhibits a surprising decrease in the disorder level, which may be attributed to defect evolution from black spot defects to large dislocation loops that leads to strain relaxation. In addition, the damage extends much deeper than the predicted depths and is attributed to a long-range defect migration effect confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations. Although similar damage evolution trends have been observed along all channeling directions, the disorder accumulation is largest along the and axes than observed along axis. This “preferential” disordering process along and suggests that more defects are shielded by the atomic rows than the two other axes. The co-existence of both uncorrelated displaced lattice atoms and dislocation loops in Ni irradiated at 1 ions/nm 2 is revealed by the energy-dependent RBS/C studies along all three axes. In contrast, dislocation loops and stacking fault tetrahedral are simultaneously present in the crystal structure of Ni irradiated at 100 ions/nm 2 that is consistent with previous molecular dynamics simulations and TEM observations.

Medium entropy alloy NiCoCr draws great attention due to its excellent strength-ductility trade-off mechanical behavior. Its irradiation behavior at elevated temperatures has been investigated using ion beam irradiation in a temperature range of 420–580°Cand transmission electron microscopy. Irradiation induced stacking fault tetrahedra were only observed at 420 °C. With increasing irradiation temperature, all stacking fault tetrahedra vanished, while the size of voids and dislocation loops increased significantly. Nanoindentation-induced structural complexities, including dislocations, stacking faults and twins helped to reduce void swelling. However, at the elevated temperatures, NiCoCr is still much more susceptible to void swelling compared to high entropy alloys such as NiCoFeCrMn and NiCoFeCrPd.

The evolution of radiation-induced defects in Ni and the single-phase concentrated solid solution alloy, NiCoCr, were investigated during in situ 2.8 MeV Au ion irradiation and post-irradiation analysis using transmission electron microscopy. Compared to Ni, both the size and area density of defect clusters decreased in NiCoCr under the same irradiation conditions, suggesting that the chemical complexity, i.e., randomness of lattice site occupations, of NiCoCr suppressed radiation-induced damage. One-dimensional glide of defect clusters was observed in Ni but not in the NiCoCr alloy. The structural nature of small defect clusters in NiCoCr were further investigated using high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy.

The origin of the blue emission in SrTiO3 has been investigated as a function of irradiation fluence, electronic excitation density, and temperature using a range of ion energies and masses. The emission clearly does not show correlation with the concentration of vacancies generated by irradiation but is greatly enhanced under heavy-ion irradiation. The intensity ratio of the 2.8 and 2.5 eV bands is independent of fluence at all temperatures, but it increases with excitation rate. The 2.8 eV emission is proposed to correspond to a transition from conduction band states to the ground state level of the self-trapped exciton center.

Temperature significantly affects defect migration and evolution in irradiated materials. However, the effects of temperature on defect evolution in concentrated solid-solution alloys (CSAs), including high entropy alloys, are not well understood, despite their potential as structural materials in advanced nuclear reactors. As an important model system of these CSAs, equiatomic Ni50Fe50 (NiFe) was selected to understand the effects of temperature on defect evolution during irradiation and subsequent thermal annealing. Specifically, defect accumulation and evolution in NiFe alloy under Ni-ion irradiation at 150, 300, and 500 K were studied, and the irradiated specimens were subsequently annealed at higher temperatures. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry along the channeling direction was employed to study damage accumulation and evolution before and after each irradiation and annealing experiment. Here we show that more defects survive and accumulate at 150 K, but more importantly defects can migrate to deeper depths at this low irradiation temperature. Irradiation-induced damage at 150 and 300 K does not recover substantially after post-irradiation annealing at 500 K, but dramatic recovery is observed after post-irradiation annealing at 700 K, indicating an onset temperature of defect recovery between 500 and 700 K. The migration of irradiation-induced defects upon annealing is closely related to the mobility and stress state arising from the surviving defects. With the consideration of five stages of defect recovery in conventional dilute alloys, the underlying mechanisms for temperature-dependent defect accumulation and evolution in NiFe CSA are discussed.

The two-temperature model has been applied to investigate the effects of the electronic subsystem on 150 keV Ni ion cascades in nickel using molecular dynamics simulation. We explore the effects of the magnitude of the electron-phonon coupling and the electronic thermal conductivity on defect production and cluster formation. It has been found that stronger electron-phonon coupling allows larger and more rapid energy feedback to the atomic subsystem, leading to reduction of number of point defects and suppression of the formation of larger defect clusters. It was observed that larger electronic thermal conductivity results in slightly increased number of point defects and larger size vacancy clusters. The latter takes place because of suppression of point defects recombination in faster cooling areas of initial damage.

Ion channeling is a powerful quantitative technique for studying ion-irradiation induced defect evolution in single crystalline materials. An iterative procedure to determine dechanneling yields has been developed for decades, serving as a major method for analyzing experimental channeling data. The applicability of such procedure is, however, generally limited to the crystalline damage with only point defects and local amorphous domains. For the other cases, such as irradiated metals, the assumption of direct-backscattering free has usually been made. In the present study, Ni, TiAl, MgO, and SrTiO3 single crystals are selected as four model materials, representing metals, intermetallic alloys, and ceramic compounds with different defect evolution processes under irradiation, to investigate the fidelity of applying dechanneling analysis on various types of defects. The pure dechanneling assumption is shown oversimplified in Ni irradiated with low fluence self-ions and may result in error on the derived damage profile. Moreover, the iterative procedure of dechanneling analysis is shown valid for more general situations than the randomly distributed atoms, including those not exhibiting a peak in channeling spectra. The disappearance of damage peak in channeling spectra is attributed to the combined effects of small (but non-zero) scattering factor, long-range damage effects, and non-ignorable damage level in pristine crystals. Furthermore, the ratio of direct backscattering to dechanneling areas provides information on defect configurations in the materials containing a well-defined damage peak in channeling spectra. The contribution from dechanneling sources increases from SrTiO3, TiAl, to MgO, according to the derived scattering and dechanneling factors.

The accumulation of irradiation-induced disorder in SrTiO3 single crystals irradiated at 16 K with 200 keV Ar ions has been investigated using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry along the 〈100〉 channeling direction and compared with previous results obtained at 300 K under identical irradiation conditions. As expected, amorphization at 16 K occurs at a much lower fluence than at 300 K due to dynamic recovery of irradiation-induced defects at 300 K. Utilizing a comprehensive damage accumulation model for analysis of the data, irradiation at 16 K results only in the formation of point defects and amorphous pockets, while defect clusters are also formed at 300 K. High defect mobility under irradiation at 300 K tends to promote recombination and clustering of point defects. These results suggest that defect diffusion processes in SrTiO3 are not thermally active at 16 K.

The selective amorphization of SiGe in Si/SiGe nanostructures via a 1 MeV Si+ implant was investigated, resulting in single-crystal Si nanowires (NWs) and quantum dots (QDs) encapsulated in amorphous SiGe fins and pillars, respectively. The Si NWs and QDs are formed during high-temperature dry oxidation of single-crystal Si/SiGe heterostructure fins and pillars, during which Ge diffuses along the nanostructure sidewalls and encapsulates the Si layers. The fins and pillars were then subjected to a 3 × 1015 ions/cm2 1 MeV Si+ implant, resulting in the amorphization of SiGe, while leaving the encapsulated Si crystalline for larger, 65-nm wide NWs and QDs. Interestingly, the 26-nm diameter Si QDs amorphize, while the 28-nm wide NWs remain crystalline during the same high energy ion implant. This result suggests that the Si/SiGe pillars have a lower threshold for Si-induced amorphization compared to their Si/SiGe fin counterparts. However, Monte Carlo simulations of ion implantation into the Si/SiGe nanostructures reveal similar predicted levels of displacements per cm3. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the total stress magnitude in Si QDs encapsulated in crystalline SiGe is higher than the total stress magnitude in Si NWs, which may lead to greater crystalline instability in the QDs during ion implant. The potential lower amorphization threshold of QDs compared to NWs is of special importance to applications that require robust QD devices in a variety of radiation environments.

Oxygen vacancies are known to play a central role in the optoelectronic properties of oxide perovskites. A detailed description of the exact mechanisms by which oxygen vacancies govern such properties, however, is still quite incomplete. The unambiguous identification of oxygen vacancies has been a subject of intense discussion. Interest in oxygen vacancies is not purely academic. Precise control of oxygen vacancies has potential technological benefits in optoelectronic devices. In this review paper, we focus our attention on the generation of oxygen vacancies by irradiation with high energy particles. Irradiation constitutes an efficient and reliable strategy to introduce, monitor, and characterize oxygen vacancies. Unfortunately, this technique has been underexploited despite its demonstrated advantages. This review revisits the main experimental results that have been obtained for oxygen vacancy centers (a) under high energy electron irradiation (100 keV–1 MeV) in LiNbO3, and (b) during irradiation with high-energy heavy (1–20 MeV) ions in SrTiO3. In both cases, the experiments have used real-time and in situ optical detection. Moreover, the present paper discusses the obtained results in relation to present knowledge from both the experimental and theoretical perspectives. Our view is that a consistent picture is now emerging on the structure and relevant optical features (absorption and emission spectra) of these centers. One key aspect of the topic pertains to the generation of self-trapped electrons as small polarons by irradiation of the crystal lattice and their stabilization by oxygen vacancies. What has been learned by observing the interplay between polarons and vacancies has inspired new models for color centers in dielectric crystals, models which represent an advancement from the early models of color centers in alkali halides and simple oxides. The topic discussed in this review is particularly useful to better understand the complex effects of different types of radiation on the defect structure of those materials, therefore providing relevant clues for nuclear engineering applications.

We report the growth of the intrinsic magnetic topological system $\mathrm{MnTe}{({\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3})}_{n}$ by molecular beam epitaxy. By mapping the temperature and the Bi:Mn flux ratio, it is shown that there is a narrow growth window for the $n=1$ phase $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{4}$ with $2.0l\mathrm{Bi}:\mathrm{Mn}l2.6$ at 225 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C. Here the films are stoichiometric and excess Bi and Te is not incorporated. At higher flux ratios (Bi:Mn\ensuremath{\ge}4.5) it is found that the $n=2\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_{4}{\mathrm{Te}}_{7}$ phase is stabilized. Transport measurements indicate that the $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{4}$ and $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_{4}{\mathrm{Te}}_{7}$ undergo magnetic transitions around 25 and 10 K, respectively, consistent with antiferromagnetic phases found in the bulk. Further, for Mn-rich conditions (Bi:Mn2), ferromagnetism emerges that exhibits a clear hysteretic state in the Hall effect, which likely indicates Mn-doped $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{4}$. Understanding how to grow ternary chalcogenide phases is the key to synthesizing new materials and to interface magnetism and topology, which together are routes to realize and control exotic quantum phenomena.

Polar phonon modes associated with room temperature ferroelectricity are observed in SrTiO3 single crystals irradiated with Ti ions. Quantitative strain analysis reveals that irradiation-induced out-of-plane strain drives the centrosymmetric cubic SrTiO3 to a tetragonal-like structure in the maximum damaged region. Energy transfer from ions to electrons during ion irradiation yields defects in SrTiO3 that also plays an important role for the room temperature ferroelectricity. Different from thin film techniques, the ferroelectricity in the ion irradiated SrTiO3 can occur for much larger thicknesses, depending on the energy and type of ion.

The irradiation tolerance of SiC/SiC composites was studied using 10 MeV Au ion irradiations at 350 °C, for surface doses between 1 and 50 displacements per atom (dpa). Atomic force microscopy and optical profilometry revealed irradiation-induced axial and radial shrinkage of SiC-fibers. At 50 dpa, net fiber shrinkage reached 2.8 ± 0.3%. We conclude that the primary cause of SiC-fiber shrinkage in SiC/SiC composites is the irradiation-induced loss of pre-existing carbon packets, which had occupied 2–3% fiber volume in unirradiated state. A compelling evidence of the carbon packet loss was revealed using a combination of state-of-art conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution TEM, energy-filtered TEM and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The carbon packet volume fraction decreased with increasing dose, reaching near-complete loss after 50 dpa. Carbon packet loss was further confirmed using Raman spectroscopy where the carbon D and G peaks disappeared after irradiation. In contrast, irradiation-induced swelling of 1 ± 0.5% was observed in the matrix after 50 dpa. The study also shows that up to 50 dpa, the multilayer pyrolytic-carbon (PyC) interface in the composite is highly irradiation tolerant as it maintained its morphology, graphitic nature and showed no signs of amorphization. Additionally, Raman spectroscopy revealed a saturation of TEM invisible disorder at 1 dpa for both ultra-fine grains of the fiber and the larger SiC-matrix grains. However, TEM visible extended defect formation such as dislocation loops were only detected in the larger matrix grains, thereby revealing a potential role of grain size on defect accumulation in SiC.

Scientific understanding of any kind of radiation effects starts from the primary damage, i.e. the defects that are produced right after an initial atomic displacement event initiated by a high-energy particle. In this Review, we consider the extensive experimental and computer simulation studies that have been performed over the past several decades on what the nature of the primary damage is. We review both the production of crystallographic or topological defects in materials as well as radiation mixing, i.e. the process where atoms in perfect crystallographic positions exchange positions with other ones in non-defective positions. All classes of materials except biological materials are considered. We also consider the recent effort to provide alternatives to the current international standard for quantifying this energetic particle damage, the Norgett-Robinson-Torrens displacements per atom (NRT-dpa) model for metals. We present in detail new complementary displacement production estimators ("athermal recombination corrected dpa", arc-dpa) and atomic mixing ("replacements per atom", rpa) functions that extend the NRT-dpa, and discuss their advantages and limitations. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Atomically disordered oxides are seen as suitable candidate for fast oxygen conduction due to their remarkable enhancement in oxygen diffusivity compared with ordered oxides. In particular, disordered derivatives of pyrochlore-structured oxides (A2B2O7) are seen as an interesting prospect due to the intrinsic existence of oxygen vacancies in their lattice. Using energetic ion irradiation, we demonstrated fabrication of structurally disordered nanoscale channels in A2B2O7 (A = Gd, Yb; B = Ti, Zr) that act as selective pathways for fast oxygen conduction. Atomic-level characterization revealed that the amorphous core and surrounding defect-fluorite phase in the nanochannels exhibited distorted and differently coordinated Ti-O polyhedra, with very similar electronic structure. The formation of defect-fluorite structure is facilitated by a decrease in the difference between the ionic radii of A- and B-site cations in the lattice.

Transition from long-range one-dimensional to short-range three-dimensional migration modes of interstitial defect clusters greatly reduces the damage accumulation in single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys under ion irradiation. A synergetic investigation with experimental, computational and modeling approaches revealed that both the resistance to void swelling and the delay in dislocation evolution in Ni-Fe alloys increased with iron concentration. This was attributed to the gradually increased sluggishness of defect migration, which enhances interstitial and vacancy recombination. Transition from long-range one-dimensional defect motion in pure nickel to short-range three-dimensional motion in concentrated Ni-Fe alloys is continuum, not abrupt, and within an iron concentration range up to 20%. The gradual transition process can be quantitatively characterized by the mean free path of the interstitial defect clusters.

Oxide perovskites exhibit fascinating physical properties that identify them as key materials for the next generation of oxide-based functional electronic devices, as well as for catalysis and photochemistry applications. In strontium titanate, substantial efforts have been devoted to elucidate the role of oxygen vacancies and localized electronic states, such as polarons, on those properties. A new model is presented that assigns a definitive red luminescence signature at 2.0 eV to Ti3+ polarons trapped at isolated oxygen vacancies. This emission provides an unequivocal identification for the oxygen vacancies, which allows monitoring their creation and annealing by a variety of physio-chemical treatments. Ionoluminescence with energetic (MeV) ion beams enables such identification by combining the sensitivity and resolution of spectroscopic techniques with their in situ character, as well as controlled incorporation of point defects, such as oxygen vacancies. Alternative models assigning the blue luminescence emission at 2.8 eV to oxygen vacancies are not supported by the experimental results. Therefore, oxygen vacancies shine red and not blue, as previously proposed.

Damage production and amorphization resulting from the interaction of medium-energy (from 40 to 480 keV) noble-gas ions (from He to Kr) with potassium tantalate (KTaO3) are determined using ion channeling measurements. A disorder accumulation model has been fit to the maximum damage concentration versus ion fluence to extract the cross sections for direct-impact and defect-stimulated amorphization, and the results indicate that defect-stimulated amorphization is the dominant mechanism. These cross sections exhibit a strong dependence on the calculated cross sections for displacing lattice atoms, indicating a dominant contribution of nuclear interactions to the defect production and amorphization processes under the irradiation conditions used in this study. These experimental findings, along with the model fits, suggest that the difference in recoil spectra between He and the other heavier ions may be the main driving force for the decreased damage efficiency observed for He ions, which results in a reduced rate of damage accumulation.

The role of dislocations on ion irradiation-induced void formation is studied in a high-entropy alloy (HEA) NiCoFeCrPd. Despite previous observations that show high-entropy alloys are swelling resistant due to a high defect recombination rate, the swelling is enhanced with increasing density of pre-existing dislocations at low strain levels that shortened transient duration before the onset of void swelling. Under certain irradiation conditions, a high density of dislocations may carry the material closer to the sink-dominated regime. Compared to another HEA NiCoFeCrMn, NiCoFeCrPd has a smaller loop size and higher loop density due to the stronger lattice distortion.

In order to study chemical complexity-induced lattice distortion in high-entropy alloys, the static Debye–Waller (D-W) factor of NiCoFeMnCr solid solution alloy is measured with low temperature neutron diffraction, ambient X-ray diffraction, and total scattering methods. The static atomic displacement parameter of the multi-element component alloy at 0 K is 0.035–0.041 Å, which is obvious larger than that of element Ni (∼ 0 Å). The atomic pair distance between individual atoms in the alloy investigated with extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements indicates that Mn has a slightly larger bond distance (∼0.4%) with neighbor atoms than that of others.

Ion irradiation of KTaO3 has been performed to investigate the evolution of irradiation damage with and without significant electronic energy deposition. Damage accumulation under irradiation with 2 MeV Au ions follows a direct-impact/defect-stimulated model, and occurs more rapidly than in SrTiO3 under similar conditions. Electronic energy deposition from 21 MeV Ni ions creates negligible damage in pristine KTaO3 to depths of 1 micron; however, damage is greatly enhanced in samples containing pre-existing defects, as evidenced by rapid amorphization due to track formation. The cross-sections for amorphous tracks show a nearly linear dependence on initial disorder, comparable with SrTiO3.

One of the biggest challenges in the radiation induced defect science is to understand the complex nature of ion-atom interactions under highly extreme conditions. Here, we report the irradiation induced non-equilibrium defect formation in NiCoCr single phase concentrated solid solution alloy due to (i) the extreme inelastic and (ii) the coupled inelastic and elastic ion-atom interactions. These two conditions are achieved at 5 and 30 μm penetration depths along the paths of swift heavy ions (1.542 GeV Bi). In general, the irradiation induced damage consists of interstitial-type dislocation loops and vacancy-type stacking fault tetrahedra (SFT). Near the surface (~5 μm) where electronic energy loss is dominating (~62.5 keV nm−1), the atomic motion primarily results in the formation of SFT. A noticeable increase of dislocation loop formation is observed at 30 μm near the maximum energy deposition from elastic interactions (~4.9 keV nm−1), as compared to the near surface region (~0.06 keV nm−1). Insights on the complex electronic and atomic correlations of extreme energy deposition and dissipation on defect dynamics and structural stability may pave the way for new design principles of radiation–tolerant structural alloys. Keywords: Concentrated solid solution alloys, Swift heavy ions, Ion-irradiation, Defects, Electronic energy-loss

Concentrated solid solution alloys have attracted rapidly increasing attention due to their potential for designing materials with high tolerance to radiation damage. To tackle the effects of chemical complexity in defect dynamics and radiation response, we present a computational study on swift heavy ion induced effects in Ni and equiatomic Ni -based alloys (Ni50Fe50, Ni50Co50) using two-temperature molecular dynamics simulations (2T-MD). The electronic heat conductivity in the two-temperature equations is parameterized from the results of first principles electronic structure calculations. A bismuth ion (1.542 GeV) is selected and single impact simulations performed in each target. We study the heat flow in the electronic subsystem and show that alloying Ni with Co or Fe reduces the heat dissipation from the impact by the electronic subsystem. Simulation results suggest no melting or residual damage in pure Ni while a cylindrical region melts along the ion propagation path in the alloys. In Ni50Co50 the damage consists of a dislocation loop structure (d = 2 nm) and isolated point defects, while in Ni50Fe50, a defect cluster (d = 4 nm) along the ion path is, in addition, formed. The simulation results are supported by atomic-level structural and defect characterizations in bismuth-irradiated Ni and Ni50Fe50. The significance of the 2T-MD model is demonstrated by comparing the results to those obtained with an instantaneous energy deposition model without consideration of e-ph interactions in pure Ni and by showing that it leads to a different qualitative behavior.

Understanding energy dissipation in electronic and atomic subsystems and subsequent defect evolution is a scientific challenge. Separate and combined effects of electronic and nuclear energy deposition in z-cut LiTaO3 have been investigated. Irradiation of pristine LiTaO3 samples with 2 MeV Ta ions leads to amorphization due to atomic displacement damage, described by a disorder accumulation model. While 21 MeV Si ions do not produce significant damage in pristine LiTaO3, introduction of pre-existing defects sensitizes LiTaO3 to the formation of ion tracks from the electronic energy loss by 21 MeV Si ions that induce a synergistic two-stage phase transition process.Impact statementExperimental study shows that the introduction of pre-existing defects prior to high energy irradiation sensitizes LiTaO3 to ion track formation leading to a synergistic two-stage phase transition process.

Latent ion tracks created by energetic heavy ions (12 MeV Ti to 946 MeV Au) in single crystal SrTiO3 are investigated using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and scanning transmission electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that pre-existing irradiation damage, introduced via elastic collision processes, interacts synergistically with the electronic energy deposition from energetic heavy ions to enhance formation of latent ion tracks. The average amorphous cross-section increases with the level of pre-damage and is linearly proportional to the electronic energy loss of the ions, with a slope dependent on the pre-damage level. For the highest energy ions (629 MeV Xe and 946 MeV Au), the tracks are continuous over the pre-damaged depth, but become discontinuous beyond the pre-damaged region. This work provides new understanding and insights on ion-solid interactions that significantly impact the interpretation of latent track formation processes, models of amorphization, and the fabrication of electro-ceramic devices.

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we elucidate the effect of atomic structure on vacancy clustering in ordered (L10) and random NiFe. Based on our simulations, we predict the vacancy evolution to be in complete contrast between the two systems. While large vacancy clusters, i.e., stacking fault tetrahedra (SFT) are formed in the random structure, no clustering is observed in the ordered-L10 structure. Similar simulations are performed on L10-CuAu and L10-TiAl to understand whether SFT formation is generic in L10 structures, or is specific to NiFe. Both materials show SFT formation, thereby highlighting specific defect energetics in L10 NiFe that lead to the lack of vacancy clustering. We elucidate that L10-NiFe has unique thermodynamic and kinetic defect energetics, i.e., antisite energies, vacancy sublattice preference, and directional migration energy barriers that collectively lead to the lack of vacancy clustering. Understanding such defect energetics could open avenues to prevent defect clustering in the vision towards development of radiation-tolerant concentrated alloys for nuclear reactor applications.

The lack of fundamental understanding on the coupled effects of energy deposition to electrons and atomic nuclei on defect processes and irradiation response poses a significant roadblock for the design and control of material properties. In this work, SrTiO3 has been irradiated with various ion species over a wide range of ion fluences at room temperature with a goal to deposit different amounts of energy to target electrons and atomic nuclei by varying the ratio of electronic to nuclear energy loss. The results unambiguously show a dramatic difference in behavior of SrTiO3 irradiated with light ions (Ne, O) compared to heavy ions (Ar). While the damage accumulation and amorphization under Ar ion irradiation are consistent with previous observations and existing models, the damage accumulation under Ne irradiation reveals a quasi-saturation state at a fractional disorder of 0.54 at the damage peak for an ion fluence corresponding to a dose of 0.5 dpa; this is followed by further increases in disorder with increasing ion fluence. In the case of O ion irradiation, the damage accumulation at the damage peak closely follows that for Ne ion irradiation up to a fluence corresponding to a dose of 0.5 dpa, where a quasi-saturation of fractional disorder level occurs at about 0.48; however, in this case, the disorder at the damage peak decreases slightly with further increases in fluence. This behavior is associated with changes in kinetics due to irradiation-enhanced diffusional processes that are dependent on electronic energy loss and the ratio of electronic to nuclear energy dissipation. These findings are critical for advancing the fundamental understanding of ion-solid interactions and for a large number of applications in oxide electronics where SrTiO3 is a foundational material.