Small-angle neutron scattering study of neutron-irradiated iron and an iron–nickel alloy

The nature of irradiation-induced features in Fe–3wt%Ni was investigated by means of small-angle neutron scattering and hardness measurements and compared with results for commercially pure Fe. We have observed a three times larger volume fraction of irradiation-induced scatterers for the Fe–Ni alloy than for pure Fe. A vacancy–Ni ratio of 0.4–0.5 was deduced for the average scatterer. This finding is consistent with the hardness increase observed.