Irradiation resistance properties studies on helium ions irradiated MAX phase Ti3AlC2

The study presents an investigation of irradiation resistance properties of Ti3AlC2 under 500 keV He ions irradiation with the doses ranging from 5.0 × 1016 to 1.0 × 1018 ions cm−2 at certain temperatures, like room temperature (RT), 300 and 500 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to study the evolution of structural damage and the behavior of deposited He ions respectively. XRD analysis reveals that for the highest dose irradiation (∼52 dpa at peak), no amorphization occurs. And the structural recovery of Ti3AlC2 is more significant accompanied with the gradual disappearance of the irradiation-induced TiC phase as the temperature rises from RT to 300 and to 500 °C with the same dose irradiation. TEM observations show that He bubbles appear in the shapes of sphere, string and platelet but no big bubbles are formed for all irradiations. Moreover, no large cracks form in the sample implanted with the highest helium concentration of ∼6.4 × 105 appm.