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Severe plastic deformation changes the microstructure and properties of steels, which may be favourable for their use in structural components of nuclear reactors. In this study, high-pressure torsion (HPT) was used to refine the grain structure of Eurofer-97, a ferritic/ martensitic steel. Electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to characterise the microstructural changes. Following HPT, the average grain size reduced by a factor of $\sim$ 30, with a marked increase in high-angle grain boundaries. Dislocation density also increased by more than one order of magnitude. The thermal stability of the deformed material was investigated via in-situ annealing during synchrotron X-ray diffraction. This revealed substantial recovery between 450 K - 800 K. Irradiation with 20 MeV Fe-ions to $\sim$ 0.1 dpa caused a 20% reduction in dislocation density compared to the as-deformed material. However, HPT deformation prior to irradiation did not have a significant effect in mitigating the irradiation-induced reductions in thermal diffusivity and surface acoustic wave velocity of the material. These results provide a multi-faceted understanding of the changes in ferritic/martensitic steels due to severe plastic deformation, and how these changes can be used to alter material properties., Comment: 59 pages, 19 figures

Tungsten is a promising candidate material for plasma-facing armour components in future fusion reactors. A key concern is irradiation-induced degradation of its normally excellent thermal transport properties. In this comprehensive study, thermal diffusivity degradation in ion-implanted tungsten and its evolution from room temperature (RT) to 1073 K is considered. Five samples were exposed to 20 MeV self-ions at RT to achieve damage levels ranging from 3.2 x 10-4 to 3.2 displacements per atom (dpa). Transient grating spectroscopy with insitu heating was then used to study thermal diffusivity evolution as a function of temperature. Using a kinetic theory model, an equivalent point defect density is estimated from the measured thermal diffusivity. The results showed a prominent recovery of thermal diffusivity between 450 K and 650 K, which coincides with the onset of mono-vacancy mobility. After 1073 K annealing samples with initial damage of 3.2 x 10-3 dpa or less recover close to the pristine value of thermal diffusivity. For doses of 3.2 x 10-2 dpa or higher, on the other hand, a residual reduction in thermal diffusivity remains even after 1073 K annealing. Transmission electron microscopy reveals that this is associated with extended, irradiation-induced dislocation structures that are retained after annealing. A sensitivity analysis shows that thermal diffusivity provides an efficient tool for assessing total defect content in tungsten up to 1000 K.

The changing thermal conductivity of an irradiated material is among the principal design considerations for any nuclear reactor, but at present few models are capable of predicting these changes starting from an arbitrary atomistic model. Here we present a simple model for computing the thermal diffusivity of tungsten, based on the conductivity of the perfect crystal and resistivity per Frenkel pair, and dividing a simulation into perfect and athermal regions statistically. This is applied to highly irradiated microstructures simulated with Molecular Dynamics. A comparison to experiment shows that simulations closely track observed thermal diffusivity over a range of doses from the dilute limit of a few Frenkel pairs to the high dose saturation limit at 3 displacements per atom (dpa)., Comment: preprint submitted to journal

Ion-irradiated FeCr alloys are useful for understanding and predicting neutron-damage in the structural steels of future nuclear reactors. Previous studies have largely focused on the structure of irradiation-induced defects, probed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), as well as changes in mechanical properties. Across these studies, a wide range of irradiation conditions has been employed on samples with different processing histories, which complicates the analysis of the relationship between defect structures and material properties. Furthermore, key properties, such as irradiation-induced changes in thermal transport and lattice strain, are little explored. Here we present a systematic study of Fe3Cr, Fe5Cr and Fe10Cr binary alloys implanted with 20 MeV Fe$^{3+}$ ions to nominal doses of 0.01 dpa and 0.1 dpa at room temperature. Nanoindentation, transient grating spectroscopy (TGS) and X-ray micro-beam Laue diffraction were used to study the changes in hardness, thermal diffusivity and strain in the material as a function of damage and Cr content. Our results suggest that Cr leads to an increased retention of irradiation-induced defects, causing substantial changes in hardness and lattice strain. However, thermal diffusivity varies little with increasing damage and instead degrades significantly with increasing Cr content in the material. We find significant lattice strains even in samples exposed to a nominal displacement damage of 0.01 dpa. The defect density predicted from the lattice strain measurements is significantly higher than that observed in previous TEM studies, suggesting that TEM may not fully capture the irradiation-induced defect population.

We present new developments of the laser-induced transient grating spectroscopy (TGS) technique that enable the measurement of large area 2D maps of thermal diffusivity and surface acoustic wave speed. Additional capabilities include targeted measurements and the ability to accommodate samples with increased surface roughness. These new capabilities are demonstrated by recording large TGS maps of deuterium implanted tungsten, linear friction welded aerospace alloys and high entropy alloys with a range of grain sizes. The results illustrate the ability to view grain microstructure in elastically anisotropic samples, and to detect anomalies in samples, for example due to irradiation and previous measurements. They also point to the possibility of using TGS to quantify grain size at the surface of polycrystalline materials., Comment: The following article has been submitted to Review of Scientific Instruments. After it is published, it will be found at https://aip.scitation.org/journal/rsi

Using transient grating spectroscopy (TGS) we measure the thermal diffusivity of tungsten exposed to different levels of 20 MeV self-ion irradiation. Damage as low as 3.2 x 10^-4 displacements per atom (dpa) causes a measurable reduction in thermal diffusivity. Doses of 0.1 dpa and above, up to 10 dpa, give a degradation of around 55% from the pristine value at room temperature. Using a kinetic theory model, the density of irradiation-induced point defects is estimated based on the measured changes in thermal diffusivity as a function of dose. These predictions are compared with point defect and dislocation loop densities observed in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Molecular dynamics (MD) predictions are combined with the TEM observations to estimate the density of point defects associated with defect clusters too small to be probed by TEM. When these "invisible" defects are accounted for, the total point defect density agrees well with that estimated from TGS for a range of doses spanning 3 orders of magnitude. Kinetic theory modelling is also used to estimate the thermal diffusivity degradation expected due to TEM-visible and invisible defects. Finely distributed invisible defects appear to play a much more important role in the thermal diffusivity reduction than larger TEM-visible dislocation loops. This work demonstrates the capability of TGS, in conjunction with kinetic theory models, to provide rapid, quantitative insight into defect densities and property evolution in irradiated materials., Comment: The following article has been revised and submitted to Acta Materialia. After it is published, it will be found at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/acta-materialia

Using transient grating spectroscopy, we measure thermal diffusivity and surface acoustic wave speed in tungsten exposed to different fluences of deuterium plasma. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows the formation of surface blisters that have similar morphology for all fluences. A significant reduction in thermal diffusivity and surface acoustic wave speed occurs as a result of plasma exposure. A saturation of the thermal diffusivity reduction with fluence is seen. Deuterium ion flux density appears play a more important role in the thermal diffusivity reduction than the fluence. These results have important implications for plasma facing components in future fusion reactors.