Formation and evolution of intermetallic nanoparticles and vacancy defects under irradiation in FeNiAl ageing alloy characterized by resistivity measurements and positron annihilation

In this paper, we study the effects of intermetallic nanoparticles like Ni3Al on the evolution of vacancy defects in the fcc FeNiAl alloy under electron irradiation using positron annihilation spectroscopy. Electrical resistivity measurements have been used as a testing method for characterizing the evolution in the underlying precipitate microstructure due to heat treatment and irradiation. It was shown that the nanosized (∼4.5 nm) intermetallic precipitates homogeneously distributed in the alloy matrix caused a several-fold decrease in the accumulation of vacancies as compared to their accumulation in the pre-quenched alloy. This effect was enhanced with the irradiation temperature. The irradiation-induced growth of intermetallic nanoparticles was also observed in the pre-quenched FeNiAl alloy under irradiation at 573 K. Thus, resistivity measurement and positron confinement in ultrafine intermetallic particles, which we revealed earlier, provided the control over the evolution of coherent precipitates, along with vacancy defects, during irradiation and annealing.