Damage Development and Hardening in 14 MeV Neutron Irradiation of Copper Alloys at 25 exp 0 C

摘要

Copper and copper alloyed with five atom percent of either aluminum, nickel or manganese were irradiated at 25 exp 0 with 14 MeV neutrons to fluences up to 7.5 x 10 exp 17 n/cm exp 2 (0.003 dpa). The radiation-induced microstructure of these materials was characterized by the coupled use of electron microscopy and microhardness. The irradiation-induced microhardness changes were found to be independent of alloy identity and the magnitude of the solute-induced hardening. It appears that at least 70% of the defect clusters are smaller than resolvable by microscopy (approx. 1 nm). The point defects at 25 exp 0 C which survive recombination and aggregate in either visible or invisible clusters constitute at least 8% of those produced in the cascades. (ERA citation 06:033515)