The synergistic influence of temperature and displacement rate on microstructural evolution of ion-irradiated Fe–15Cr–16Ni model austenitic alloy

An experimental investigation of microstructural evolution has been conducted on Fe–15Cr–16Ni irradiated with 4.0 MeV nickel ions. Irradiations proceeded to dose levels ranging from ∼0.2 to ∼17 dpa at temperatures of 300, 400, 500 and 600 °C at dpa rates of 1 × 10−4, 4 × 10−4 and 1 × 10−3 dpa/s. The swelling was found to monotonically increase with decreases in dpa rate at every irradiation condition studied. The earliest and most sensitive component of microstructure to both temperature and especially dpa rate was found to be the Frank loops. The second most sensitive component was found to be the void microstructure, which co-evolves with the loop and dislocation microstructure.