Abstract
Here, we employ a combination of advanced synchrotron-based scattering characterization techniques to understand and unravel the atomic origins of the colossal stored energy release in neutron-irradiated silicon carbide. The quantification of the neutron irradiation-induced defects and their impact on the structure-property relationship are important for the design and safe operation of advanced fission and fusion reactors. Our experimental results show that the atomic structure in the as-irradiated samples is significantly perturbed due to a large fraction of vacancy- and interstitial-type defects that lead to complex microstructures and additional components in the x-ray diffraction and pair distribution function (PDF) results. We directly correlate the stored energy release to the recovery of the sublattices with PDF analysis, highlighting that the carbon interstitial- and vacancy-type defects contribute to stored energy more than those of silicon. We find these results to be striking and believe our discoveries to be timely and noteworthy given the technological importance of silicon carbide to the nuclear fission and fusion communities.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 103601 |
| Journal | Physical Review Materials |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2021 |
Funding
These experiments and analyses were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fusion Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-SC0018322 with the Research Foundation for the State University of New York at Stony Brook and No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. This paper was supported by the DOE, Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract No. DE-AC07-051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities experiment. Use of the National Synchrotron Light Source-II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, was supported by the DOE under Contract No. DE-SC0012704. The irradiation experiment was supported by DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Advanced Fuel Campaign under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), managed by UT-Battelle, LLC. A portion of this research used resources at the HFIR, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by ORNL.