Speaker
Description
In this continuation of our introduction to radiation damage effects in solids, we will focus primarily on displacement damage effects. We will begin by revisiting the partitioning of ion stopping between electronic and nuclear energy losses. We will especially focus here on the "LSS theory" of ion-solid interactions and ballistic energy losses. We will begin by considering the formation of interstitials (i) and vacancies (v) in crystalline solids and the relative mobilities of these point defects. We will then investigate differences in i-v displacement cascades as a function of projectile species (electron, neutron, ion) and projectile mass and energy. We will compare displacement radiation damage in metals (simple crystalline solids) versus ceramics (complex crystalline solids with multiple sublattices). Finally, we will examine the plethora of ballistic radiation effects in solids, including: (1) point defect aggregation to form extended defects such as dislocation loops and voids; (2) mechanical effects such as point defect hardening and void swelling; (3) radiation-induced phase transitions such as crystal-to-crystal and crystal-to-amorphous transformations; and (4) radiation tolerance, i.e., the resistance exhibited by some special materials to detrimental radiation damage effects.
