Influence of a Cu-Nb interface on local lattice diffusivity in Cu during irradiation

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

A Simulation Study of Tracer Diffusion Concentration Profiles Resulting from the Transition from Dislocation Pipes to a Grain Boundary Slab

ABSTRACTIn the present study we examine the well-known analysis in which the dislocation pipe diffusivity is determined by means of a grain boundary type analysis of the tail of a tracer concentration depth profile. We use a Monte Carlo grid method for testing the analysis. The results show that the analysis is really only satisfactory when the spacing between the dislocations is roughly twice the diffusion length (Dlt)½ where Dland t are the lattice diffusivity and time respectively.

Diffusion-Induced Grain Boundary Migration and Role of Defects

A model is presented to explain various aspects of diffusion-induced grain boundary migration (DIGM). The driving energies of DIGM are identified as the free energy of mixing and the interface free energy, the former being predominant in most cases of DIGM. The grain boundary migrates due to thermally activated motion of atoms across the interface under the influence of the driving energies. An expression for the velocity of migration is derived. It is shown that this depends parabolically on the solute concentration, in agreement with experimental observations in the case of liquid film migration (LFM), which is analogous to DIGM. Furthermore, the velocity is proportional to lattice diffusivity ahead of the boundary. Recent results of enhancement of DIGM by ion bombardment is explained by radiation-enhanced lattice diffusivity due to introduction of point defects by the ions. The model also explains that diffusion-induced recrystallization (DIR) is due to a free energy decrease associated with the transformation from the amorphous phase in the grain boundary layer to the crystalline phase.

Ion-beam mixing of Ni/Pd layers: II. Thermally assisted regime (>500K)

Atomic mixing in Ni/Pd bilayer films due to 120 keV Ar+ irradiation in the thermally assisted regime (523−673 K) has been measured, in situ, using Rutherford backscattering with 2.0 MeV 4He+ ions. The mean diameter of grains in these polycrystallinc films increased from 10 to 60 nm, following Ar+ bombardment at 573 K. Initial mixing was rapid due to grain boundary diffusion and incorporation of the metal solute into the solvent metal matrix by grain growth; this mixing stage was essentially complete within 10 min for annealed films or after an Ar+ dose of 4 × 1015 cm−2 in irradiated films (10 min irradiation). No further measurable mixing occurred in the annealed, unirradiated films. For the irradiated samples the initial rapid mixing (6−35 atoms/ion) was followed by a slower mixing stage of 0.7–1.8 atoms/ion for irradiation doses of up to 2.5 × 1016 Ar+ cm−2. The Ar+ bombardment gave rise to much smaller mixing levels when the Pd films were deposited on large-grain or single-crystal Ni. A diffusion analysis demonstrates that the effective diffusivity, Deff, for ion-irradiation-enhanced mixing in the thermally assisted regime satisfied the relation Dl < Deff < DB, where the ratio of the grain boundary to lattice diffusivity was DB/Dl > 106.