In situ transmission electron microscope studies of irradiation-induced and irradiation-enhanced phase changes

摘要

Motivated at least initially by materials needs for nuclear reactor development, extensive irradiation effects studies employing TEMs have been performed for several decades, involving irradiation-induced and irradiation-enhanced, microstructural changes, including phase transformations such as precipitation, dissolution, crystallization, amorphization, and order-disorder phenomena. From the introduction of commercial high voltage electron microscopes (HVEM) in the mid-1960s, studies of electron irradiation effects have constituted a major aspect of HVEM application in materials science. For irradiation effects studies two additional developments have had particularly significant impact: (1) The availability of TEM specimen holders in which specimen temperature can be controlled in the range 10--2200 K; and (2) the interfacing of ion accelerators which allows in situ TEM studies of irradiation effects and the ion beam modification of materials within this broad temperature range. This paper treats several aspects of in situ studies of electron and ion beam-induced and enhanced phase changes, including the current state of in situ ion beam capability internationally, and presents two case studies involving in situ experiments performed in an HVEM to illustrate the dynamics of such an approach in materials research.