Abstract
Microstructural changes induced in metals by ion bombardment have important implications for technology (see, for example, refs 1–3). Helium irradiation can result in the formation of small (∼2nm diameter) helium bubbles in high concentration (∼1025 m–3), ordered on a superlattice. Current theories are all directed towards explaining the formation of a superlattice having the same alignment as the crystal lattice of the metal—the matrix or m orientation. In the face-centred-cubic metal copper, although there was evidence in previous work that some domains4 in the bubble array were in orientations other than m (ref. 5), it may have been assumed that the proportion of such domains was small. Here we report new results that show that a high proportion of the ordered bubble array is in domains that have orientations different from m. We propose that a new mechanism, based on the spatial characteristics of the stress field around an overpressurized bubble, must play a dominant role in the later stages of bubble ordering.
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Johnson, P., Malcolm, A. & Mazey, D. Importance of stress in bubble ordering in the helium gas-bubble superlattice in copper. Nature 329, 316–318 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/329316a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/329316a0
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