Phase stability in thermally-aged CASS CF8 under heavy ion irradiation

The stability of the microstructure of a cast austenitic stainless steel (CASS), before and after heavy ion irradiation, was investigated by atom probe tomography (APT). A CF8 ferrite-austenite duplex alloy was thermally aged at 400 °C for 10,000 h. After this treatment, APT revealed nanometer-sized G-phase precipitates and Fe-rich α and Cr-enriched α′ phase separated regions in the ferrite. The thermally-aged CF8 specimen was irradiated with 1 MeV Kr ions to a fluence of 1.88 × 1019 ions/m2 at 400 °C. After irradiation, APT analysis revealed a strong spatial/dose dependence of the G-phase precipitates and the α-α′ spinodal decomposition in the ferrite. For the G-phase precipitates, the number density increased and the mean size decreased with increasing dose, and the particle size distribution changed considerably under irradiation. The inverse coarsening process can be described by recoil resolution. The amplitude of the α-α′ spinodal decomposition in the ferrite was apparently reduced after heavy ion irradiation.