Energy evolution in nanocrystalline iron driven by collision cascades

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics to compare energy evolution in nanocrystalline and single crystal iron under irradiation, revealing a convergence to similar defect states after high doses and proposing a model for energy changes.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation approach comparing nanocrystalline and single crystal iron under irradiation and develops a model explaining energy evolution during defect accumulation.

Findings

Nanocrystalline samples show initial grain size and defect differences.

All samples converge to similar energy states after ~4 dpa.

A model explains the energy evolution during irradiation.

Abstract

Nanocrystalline materials are promising candidates for future fusion reactor applications, due to their high density of grain boundaries which may serve as sinks for irradiation induced defects. We use molecular dynamics to simulate collision cascades in nanocrystalline iron and compare these to collision cascades in initially defect free single crystals. We create nanocrystalline samples via Voronoi tessellation of initially randomly placed grain seeds and via severe plastic shearing. An irradiation induced annealing is observed whereby after ~ 2 displacements per atom (dpa), irradiation drives all simulation cells to a single crystalline state. Irradiation-induced defects that distort the lattice generate elastic strain, so we use excess potential energy as a measure of defect content. At low doses, the Voronoi samples feature a few large, low energy grains, whereas the sheared samples show many small, high energy grains due to the high defect and grain boundary content caused by severe deformation. As dose increases beyond 1 dpa however, all nanocrystalline samples converge to a similar behaviour. Excess potential energy mirrors this trend, plateauing above ~ 4 dpa. We hypothesise that the initially pristine cells will also reach a similar plateau after 5 dpa, which is seemingly confirmed by running a single instance of each cell type to 10 dpa. A model is developed to explain the energy evolution.