Amorphization of oxides in ODS steels/materials by electronic stopping power

Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic/martensitic steels are being considered for high temperature and high fluence nuclear applications, such as structural components in fusion reactors.In this work, Transmission Electron Microscopy is used to study the effect of swift heavy ion irradiation (74 MeV Kr ions up to 1016 ions m−2) on the microstructure of the DT2203Y05 ODS material. The amorphous ion tracks induced by ion irradiation are clearly visible inside the oxides. This evidences that the mechanism responsible for the amorphization of oxides is linked to the high electronic energy loss along the ion trajectory.