scholarly journals Residual-Impurity Effects in Directional Solidification: Long-Lasting Recoil of the Front and Nucleation-Growth of Gas Bubbles

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silv�re Akamatsu ◽  
Gabriel Faivre
Author(s):  
O. M. Katz

The swelling of irradiated UO2 has been attributed to the migration and agglomeration of fission gas bubbles in a thermal gradient. High temperatures and thermal gradients obtained by electron beam heating simulate reactor behavior and lead to the postulation of swelling mechanisms. Although electron microscopy studies have been reported on UO2, two experimental procedures have limited application of the results: irradiation was achieved either with a stream of inert gas ions without fission or at depletions less than 2 x 1020 fissions/cm3 (∼3/4 at % burnup). This study was not limited either of these conditions and reports on the bubble characteristics observed by transmission and fractographic electron microscopy in high density (96% theoretical) UO2 irradiated between 3.5 and 31.3 x 1020 fissions/cm3 at temperatures below l600°F. Preliminary results from replicas of the as-polished and etched surfaces of these samples were published.


Author(s):  
H.J. Zuo ◽  
M.W. Price ◽  
R.D. Griffin ◽  
R.A. Andrews ◽  
G.M. Janowski

The II-VI semiconducting alloys, such as mercury zinc telluride (MZT), have become the materials of choice for numerous infrared detection applications. However, compositional inhomogeneities and crystallographic imperfections adversly affect the performance of MZT infrared detectors. One source of imperfections in MZT is gravity-induced convection during directional solidification. Crystal growth experiments conducted in space should minimize gravity-induced convection and thereby the density of related crystallographic defects. The limited amount of time available during Space Shuttle experiments and the need for a sample of uniform composition requires the elimination of the initial composition transient which occurs in directionally solidified alloys. One method of eluding this initial transient involves directionally solidifying a portion of the sample and then quenching the remainder prior to the space experiment. During the space experiment, the MZT sample is back-melted to exactly the point at which directional solidification was stopped on earth. The directional solidification process then continues.


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