Ce Zheng

TEM samples of F/M steel HT9 were irradiated to 20 dpa at 420°C, 440°C and 470°C in a TEM with 1 MeV Kr ions so that the microstructure evolution could be followed in situ and characterized as a function of dose. Dynamic observations of irradiation-induced defect formation and evolution were done at different temperatures. The irradiation-induced loops were characterized in terms of their Burgers vector, size and density as a function of dose and similar observations and trends were found at the three temperatures: (i) both a/2 <111> and a <100> loops are observed; (ii) in the early stage of irradiation, the density of irradiation-induced loops increases with dose (0-4 dpa) and then decreases at higher doses (above 4 dpa), (iii) the dislocation line density shows an inverse trend to the loop density with increasing dose: in the early stages of irradiation the pre-existing dislocation lines are lost by climb to the surfaces while at higher doses (above 4 dpa), the build-up of new dislocation networks is observed along with the loss of the radiation-induced dislocation loops to dislocation networks; (iv) at higher doses, the decrease of number of loops affects more the a/2 <111> loop population; the possible loss mechanisms of the a/2 <111> loops are discussed. Also, the ratio of a <100> to a/2 <111> loops is found to be similar to cases of bulk irradiation of the same alloy using 5 MeV Fe2+ions to similar doses of 20 dpa at similar temperatures.

In this study, Ferritic/Martensitic (F/M) HT9 steel was irradiated to 20 displacements per atom (dpa) at 600 nm depth at 420 and 440 °C, and to 1, 10 and 20 dpa at 600 nm depth at 470 °C using 5 MeV Fe++ ions. The characterization was conducted using ChemiSTEM and Atom Probe Tomography (APT), with a focus on radiation induced segregation and precipitation. Ni and/or Si segregation at defect sinks (grain boundaries, dislocation lines, carbide/matrix interfaces) together with Ni, Si, Mn rich G-phase precipitation were observed in self-ion irradiated HT9 except in very low dose case (1 dpa at 470 °C). Some G-phase precipitates were found to nucleate heterogeneously at defect sinks where Ni and/or Si segregated. In contrast to what was previously reported in the literature for neutron irradiated HT9, no Cr-rich α′ phase, χ-phases, η phase and voids were found in self-ion irradiated HT9. The difference of observed microstructures is probably due to the difference of irradiation dose rate between ion irradiation and neutron irradiation. In addition, the average size and number density of G-phase precipitates were found to be sensitive to both irradiation temperature and dose. With the same irradiation dose, the average size of G-phase increased whereas the number density decreased with increasing irradiation temperature. Within the same irradiation temperature, the average size increased with increasing irradiation dose.