Abstract
Radiation-induced defects cause severe degradation of materials properties during irradiation that can ultimately cause the material to fail. Consequences of these defects include swelling, embrittlement, and undesirable phase transformations. Nanocrystalline materials, which contain a high density of grain boundaries, have demonstrated enhanced radiation tolerance compared to large grain counterparts under certain conditions. This is because, as has long been recognized, grain boundaries can serve as defect sinks for absorbing and annihilating radiation-induced defects. Increasingly, researchers have examined how grain boundaries influence the direct production of defects during collision cascade, the origin of the radiation-induced defects. In this review article, we analyze the computational studies in this area that have been performed during the past two decades. These studies examine defect production near grain boundaries in metallic, ionic, and covalent systems. It is found that, in most systems, grain boundaries absorb more interstitials than vacancies during the defect production stage. While this is generically true of most boundaries, the detailed interaction between defects and grain boundaries does depend on boundary atomic structure, the stress state near the boundary, cascade-boundary separation, and materials properties. Furthermore, the defect distribution near boundaries is qualitatively different from that in single crystals, with the former often exhibiting larger vacancy clusters and smaller interstitial clusters than the latter. Finally, grain boundaries that are damaged after cascades have occurred exhibit different interaction behavior with defects than their pristine counterparts. Together, these atomistic simulation results provide useful insight for both developing higher-level modeling of defect evolution at long timescales and how interfaces influence radiation damage evolution.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
C. Becquart and C. Domain, Metall. Mater. Trans. A 42, 852 (2011).
S.J. Zinkle and K. Farrell, J. Nucl. Mater. 168, 262 (1989).
T.D. Shen, S. Feng, M. Tang, J.A. Valdez, Y. Wang, and K.E. Sickafus, Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 263115 (2007).
Y. Chimi, A. Iwase, N. Ishikawa, M. Kobiyama, T. Inami, and S. Okuda, J. Nucl. Mater. 297, 355 (2001).
A.D. Brailsford and R. Bullough, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 302, 87 (1981).
B.N. Singh and A.J.E. Foreman, Phil. Mag. A 66, 975 (1992).
K. Sugio, Y. Shimomura, and T.D. de la Rubia, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 67, 882 (1998).
M. Samaras, P.M. Derlet, H. Van Swygenhoven, and M. Victoria, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 125505 (2002).
M. Samaras, P.M. Derlet, H. Van Swygenhoven, and M. Victoria, Phil. Mag. 83, 3599 (2003).
M. Samaras, P.M. Derlet, H. Van Swygenhoven, and M. Victoria, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 202, 51 (2003).
M. Samaras, P.M. Derlet, H.V. Swygenhoven, and M. Victoria, J. Nucl. Mater. 351, 47 (2006).
M.J. Demkowicz, O. Anderoglu, X.H. Zhang, and A. Misra, J. Mater. Res. 26, 1666 (2011).
X.-M. Bai, A.F. Voter, R.G. Hoagland, M. Nastasi, and B.P. Uberuaga, Science 327, 1631 (2010).
X.-M. Bai, L.J. Vernon, R.G. Hoagland, A.F. Voter, M. Nastasi, and B.P. Uberuaga, Phys. Rev. B 85, 214103 (2012).
F.J. Pérez-Pérez and R. Smith, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 153, 136 (1999).
F.J. Pérez-Pérez and R. Smith, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 164–165, 487 (2000).
F.J. Pérez-Pérez and R. Smith, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 180, 322 (2001).
R.E. Stoller, P.J. Kamenski, and Y.N. Osetsky, MRS Proc. 1125, 1125 (2008).
L. Van Brutzel and E. Vincent-Aublant, J. Nucl. Mater. 377, 522 (2008).
L. Van Brutzel, E. Vincent-Aublant, and J.M. Delaye, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B Beam Interact. Mater. Atoms 267, 3013 (2009).
X.-M. Bai and B.P. Uberuaga, Phil. Mag. 92, 1469 (2012).
A. Moriani and F. Cleri, Phys. Rev. B 73, 214113 (2006).
F. Gao, D. Chen, W. Hu, and W.J. Weber, Phys. Rev. B 81, 184101 (2010).
N. Swaminathan, P.J. Kamenski, D. Morgan, and I. Szlufarska, Acta Mater. 58, 2843 (2010).
N. Swaminathan, M. Wojdyr, D.D. Morgan, and I. Szlufarska, J. Appl. Phys. 111, 054918 (2012).
E.A. Kenik and T.E. Mitchell, Philos. Mag. 32, 815 (1975).
K. Nordlund, J. Wallenius, and L. Malerba, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 246, 322 (2006).
R.E. Stoller and S.G. Guiriec, J. Nucl. Mater. 329–333, 1238 (2004).
Y.N. Osetsky, A. Serra, B.N. Singh, and S.I. Golubov, Philos. Mag. A 80, 2131 (2000).
E. Ruedl, P. Delavignette, and S. Amelinckx, Phys. Rev. Lett. 6, 530 (1961).
M.F. Chisholm, A. Maiti, S.J. Pennycook, and S.T. Pantelides, Mater. Sci. Forum 294–296, 161 (1999).
D. Nguyen-Manh, A.P. Horsfield, and S.L. Dudarev, Phys. Rev. B 73, 020101 (2006).
N.D. Morelon, D. Ghaleb, J.M. Delaye, and L. Van Brutzel, Phil. Mag. 83, 1533 (2003).
W. Jiang, H. Wang, I. Kim, Y. Zhang, and W.J. Weber, J. Mater. Res. 25, 2341 (2010).
W. Jiang, H. Wang, I. Kim, I.T. Bae, G. Li, P. Nachimuthu, Z. Zhu, Y. Zhang, and W.J. Weber, Phys. Rev. B 80, 161301 (2009).
F. Gao, W.J. Weber, and R. Devanathan, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 180, 176 (2001).
X.Y. Liu, B.P. Uberuaga, M.J. Demkowicz, T.C. Germann, A. Misra, and M. Nastasi, Phys. Rev. B 85, 012103 (2012).
K.E. Sickafus, L. Minervini, R.W. Grimes, J.A. Valdez, M. Ishimaru, F. Li, K.J. McClellan, and T. Hartmann, Science 289, 748 (2000).
K.E. Sickafus, R.W. Grimes, J.A. Valdez, A. Cleave, M. Tang, M. Ishimaru, S.M. Corish, C.R. Stanek, and B.P. Uberuaga, Nat. Mater. 6, 217 (2007).
B.P. Uberuaga and X.-M. Bai, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 23, 435004 (2011).
P. Nerikar, C.R. Stanek, S.R. Phillpot, S.B. Sinnott, and B.P. Uberuaga, Phys. Rev. B 81, 064111 (2010).
A.J. Ardell, V. Ghetta, D. Gorse, D. Mazière, and V. Pontikis, eds., Materials Issues for Generation IV Systems (Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2008).
B.J. Garrison, N. Winograd, J. Don, and E. Harrison, J. Chem. Phys. 69, 1440 (1978).
M. Ghaly and R.S. Averback, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 364 (1994).
R.E. Voskoboinikov, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B (submitted).
M.J. Demkowicz and R.G. Hoagland, Int. J. Appl. Mech. 1, 421 (2009).
A. Misra, M. Demkowicz, X. Zhang, and R. Hoagland, JOM 59 (9), 62 (2007).
Acknowledgements
X.M.B. thanks the Center for Materials Science of Nuclear Fuel (CMSNF) at Idaho National Laboratory (award # FWP 1356) and B.P.U. thanks the Center for Materials at Irradiation and Mechanical Extremes (CMIME) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (award # 2008LANL1026) for financial support. Both centers are part of the Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Los Alamos National Laboratory, an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396. This manuscript has been co-authored by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Both the authors contributed equally.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bai, XM., Uberuaga, B.P. The Influence of Grain Boundaries on Radiation-Induced Point Defect Production in Materials: A Review of Atomistic Studies. JOM 65, 360–373 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-012-0544-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-012-0544-5