Contribution of various defects to irradiation-induced hardening in an austenitic model alloy

The combination of charged particle irradiation using MeV energy range accelerators and an ultra-low load indentation is a potential technique to study the mechanical property changes of fusion structural materials due to high-energy neutron irradiation. This work was intended to examine the contribution of various defects to irradiation-induced hardening in an Fe-15Cr-20Ni model alloy by means of single/dual-beam ion irradiation and a micro-indentation. In single/dual ion-irradiated specimens, a significant reduction in Frank loop number density was observed in a region where indentation-induced dislocations evolved. It was observed that only Frank loops with diameters of about 20 nm partially survived in the plastically deformed region. In the dual ion-irradiated specimens, cavities shear-deformed along the mass-flow directions were observed in the region beneath the indent. It was concluded through the indentation hardness determination and post-irradiation indentation micro-structural examination that small Frank loops cause hardening to a larger extent than expected from their actual sizes and induce plastic instability by annihilating by interactions with moving dislocations, while clean cavities produced by ion irradiation are not strong deformation barriers as estimated from neutron data.