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High-Resolution Electron Microscopy Studies of the Precipitation of Copper Under Neutron Irradiation in An Fe-1.3Wt%Cu Alloy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

A. C. Nicol ,
M. L. Jenkins  and
M. A. Kirk
A. C. Nicol
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Rd., Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
M. L. Jenkins
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Rd., Oxford OX1 3PH, UK
M. A. Kirk
Affiliation:
Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, 60439 IL, USA
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Abstract

We have studied by electron microscopy the copper-rich precipitates in an Fe-1.3wt%Cu model alloy irradiated with neutrons to doses of 8.61 × 10−3dpa and 6.3×10−2 dpa at a temperature of-270°C. In the lower dose material a majority (ca. 60%) of the precipitates visible in high-resolution electron microscopy were twinned 9R precipitates of size ∼ 2−4 nm, whilst ca. 40 % were untwinned. In the higher dose material, a majority (ca. 75%) of visible precipitates were untwinned although many still seemed to have a 9R structure. The average angle α between the herring-bone fringes in the twin variants was measured as 1250, not the 1290 characteristic of precipitates in thermally-aged and electron-irradiated material immediately after the bcc-→9R martensitic transformation. We argue that these results imply that the bcc-→9R transformation of small (< 4 nm) precipitates under neutron irradiation takes place at the irradiation temperature of 270°C rather than after subsequent cooling. Preliminary measurements showed that precipitate sizes did not depend strongly on dose, with a mean diameter of 3.4 ± 0.7 nm for the lower dose material, and 3.0 ± 0.5 rim for the higher dose material. This result agrees with the previous assumption that the lack of coarsening in precipitates formed under neutron irradiation is a consequence of the partial dissolution of larger precipitates by high-energy cascades.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 540: Symposium N / Microstructural Processes in Irradiated Materials , 1998 , 409
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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