Evaluation of the energetics of copper-vacancy clusters in Fe

A theoretical study is conducted to evaluate the nucleation free energy of copper-vacancy clusters in Fe as a function of the numbers of copper atoms and of vacancies in a cluster. Using this free energy value, cluster nucleation processes during irradiation are investigated. The results clearly show that there are two different types of cluster nucleation paths on the free energy surface; one is the formation of empty voids by jumping over the ridge of the free energy surface, and the other corresponds to a path for the formation of copper clusters by going around the ridge. The dependence of easy nucleation paths on the damage rate is discussed.