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Temperature and irradiation species dependence of radiation response of nanocrystalline silicon carbide

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Abstract

The grain size dependence of the radiation response of silicon carbide (SiC) has been studied under 1.0 MeV Kr2+ ion irradiation. It was found that radiation resistance decreased with grain refinement, in contrast to previous studies on the same nanocrystalline (nc) SiC material using Si ion and high voltage electron irradiation. The effect of grain size on radiation response may depend upon the ion species used due to a potential change in amorphization mechanism. It was also determined that temperature had a strong effect on the grain size dependence of the radiation response in SiC due to the activation temperatures of critical recombination and migration reactions. This work explores the possible impacts of irradiation species, temperature, and experimental design on the radiation response of SiC.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the U.S. Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences for funding this research. We thank Prof. D. Morgan from the University of Wisconsin for helpful comments on the study and Dr. Mark Kirk and the rest of the staff at IVEM-Tandem at ANL for their assistance in conducting the in situ irradiations. The electron microscopy analysis was carried out at the Electron Microscopy Center at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Laboratory operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 by UChicago Argonne, LLC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA

    Laura Jamison & Izabela Szlufarska

  2. Engineering Physics Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA

    Kumar Sridharan & Izabela Szlufarska

  3. Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA

    Kumar Sridharan & Izabela Szlufarska

  4. Nuclear Engineering Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27695, USA

    Steve Shannon

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  1. Laura Jamison
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  2. Kumar Sridharan
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  4. Izabela Szlufarska
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Correspondence to Izabela Szlufarska.

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Jamison, L., Sridharan, K., Shannon, S. et al. Temperature and irradiation species dependence of radiation response of nanocrystalline silicon carbide. Journal of Materials Research 29, 2871–2880 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.340

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.340

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