Microstructural evolution of Fe22%Cr model alloy under thermal ageing and ion irradiation conditions studied by atom probe tomography

Nanostructure evolution during ion irradiation of two thermally aged binary Fee22Cr alloys has been investigated using atom probe tomography. Specimens aged at 500 °C for 50 and 200 h were irradiated by 5.6 MeV Fe ions at room temperature up to fluences of 0.3 × 1015 ions/cm2 and 1 × 1015 ions/cm2. The effect of irradiation on the material nanostructure was examined at a depth of 1 μm from the irradiated surface. The analysis of Cr radial concentration functions reveals that dense α′-phase precipitates in the 200 h aged alloy become diffuse and thereby larger when subjected to irradiation. On the other hand, less Cr-enriched precipitates in the alloy aged for 50 h are less affected. The CreCr pair correlation function analysis shows that matrix inhomogeneity decreases under irradiation. Irradiation leads to a decrease in the number density of diffuse clusters, whereas in the case of well-developed precipitates it remains unchanged.