General introduction to microstructural evolution under cascade damage conditions

摘要

A short overview of the processes that affect the evolution of the microstructure during irradiation is given. The processes include defect production with an emphasis on the effects of the dynamic cascade events, defect clustering, irradiation-enhanced diffusion, radiation-induced segregation, phase decompositions and phase transformations. A simple model for the description of the development of the defect microstructure in a pure metal during cascade producing irradiation is also outlined which can provide, in principle, defect fluxes required for the description of the microstructural processes such as phase decomposition and irradiation-induced precipitation.