Abstract:
Radiation defects generated in various nuclear materials such as Mo and CeO2, used as a surrogate material for UO2, formed by sub-MeV Xe and Kr ion implantations were studied via TRIM and MD codes. Calculated results were compared with defect distributions in CeO2 crystals obtained from experiments by implantation of these ions at
the doses of 11017 ions/cm2 at several temperatures. A combination of in situ TEM
(Transmission Electron Microscopy) and ex situ TEM experiments on Mo were used to
study the evolution of defect clusters during implantation of Xe and Kr ions at energies of
150-700 keV, depending on the experimental conditions. The simulation and irradiation
were performed on thin film single crystal materials. The formation of defects, dislocations,
and solid-state precipitates were studied by simulation and compared to experiment. Void
and bubble formation rates are estimated based on a new mesoscale approach that
combines experiment with the kinetic models validated by atomistic and Ab-initio simulations. Various sets of quantitative experimental results were obtained to characterize the dose and temperature effects of irradiation. These experimental results include size distributions of dislocation loops, voids and gas bubble structures created by irradiation.