Irradiation-induced chemical disordering in ceramics: The case of SiC

Chemical disordering is one feature of damage that occurs in irradiation environments and is common in ceramic compounds. This paper reviews irradiation-induced chemical disordering in SiC-based materials at elevated temperatures. The results were obtained using advanced analytical tools to characterize atomistic defects and to evaluate the chemistry of defect clusters and homonuclear bond structures. This paper demonstrates that chemical disordering is crucial to understanding microstructural stability and establishing a mechanistic modeling of microstructural evolution of irradiated SiC.