Study of hydrogenation processes in radiation-resistant nitride ceramics

This paper presents the results of studying the processes of defect formation caused by irradiation with protons with an energy of 1.5 MeV and doses of 1 × 1015, 1 × 1016, 1 × 1017 ion/cm2 in ceramics based on aluminum nitride. The choice of radiation doses is due to the possibility of modeling atomic displacement (dpa) values of 0.56, 5.6, and 56 dpa, respectively. An analysis of structural changes showed a significant stability of the crystal structure at irradiation doses comparable to 0.56, 5.6, while an increase in the displacements up to 56 dpa leads to a significant increase in distortions of the crystal structure and its disordering due to the effect of accumulation of defects in the structure, as well as to hydrogenation processes. The totality of the data obtained indicates a fairly high degree of resistance to proton irradiation and the subsequent evolution of defects in the structure of nitride ceramics; however, at high doses of radiation, microcracks form in the surface layer, which leads to a sharp deterioration in the strength properties due to a large number of dislocation and point defects.