Layer dissolution in accumulative roll bonded bulk Zr/Nb multilayers under heavy-ion irradiation

M. Radhakrishnan, B. Kombaiah, M. N. Bachhav, T. J. Nizolek, Y. Q. Wang, M. Knezevic, N. Mara, O. Anderoglu

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Abstract

The heavy-ion irradiation behavior of bulk zirconium-niobium multilayered composites was investigated up to large doses. Multilayers with an average individual layer thicknesses ranging between 15 and 80 nm were synthesized by accumulative roll bonding technique. The irradiation was performed with a defocused 7 MeV Zr2+ ion beam at 500 °C. The maximum dose achieved was ∼145 dpa at the depth of ∼1.5 μm from the irradiated surface. Sub-surface microstructural damage and the chemical redistribution were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy, respectively. Irrespective of the layer thicknesses, the irradiation condition caused layer instability and the extent of damage varied with the dose levels. Doses lesser than ∼60 dpa caused layer fragmentation and greater than ∼60 dpa resulted in layer dissolution. The chemical mixing of layers occur to a depth of ∼1 μm, consuming multiple bi-layer periods. Despite the elevated irradiation temperature (500 °C) and a slightly positive heat of mixing (+6 kJ/mol), no phase separation was observed and single-phase was retained in the mixed region. The results demonstrate that chemical mixing was facilitated by the liquid phase miscibility of Zr and Nb, which propelled the interdiffusion within the thermal spikes towards mixing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number153315
JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
Volume557
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research is supported by Nuclear Energy University Program grant no. DE-NE0008656 and NRC faculty development grant no. NRC-HQ-60-17-G-0007. MR and OA acknowledge the availability of characterization facilities through the NSUF-RTE user proposal award (#20-?2989). Heavy ion irradiation experiment was supported by Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Los Alamos National Laboratory, an affirmative action equal opportunity employer, is managed by Triad National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's NNSA, under contract 89233218CNA000001. MR wishes to thank Prof. Pascal Bellon & Qun Li (UIUC) and Prof. Michael Demkowicz (TAMU) for the enlightening discussions.

Funding Information:
This research is supported by Nuclear Energy University Program grant no. DE-NE0008656 and NRC faculty development grant no. NRC-HQ-60-17-G-0007 . MR and OA acknowledge the availability of characterization facilities through the NSUF-RTE user proposal award ( #20-–2989 ). Heavy ion irradiation experiment was supported by Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Los Alamos National Laboratory, an affirmative action equal opportunity employer, is managed by Triad National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's NNSA , under contract 89233218CNA000001 . MR wishes to thank Prof. Pascal Bellon & Qun Li (UIUC) and Prof. Michael Demkowicz (TAMU) for the enlightening discussions.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

Keywords

  • Accumulative roll bonding (ARB)
  • Forced chemical mixing
  • Ion irradiation
  • Radiation-induced mixing (RIM)
  • Thermal spikes
  • Zr/Nb multilayers

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