A previous study of heavy-ion damage in Fe and Fe-Cr alloys was continued with an investigation of damage development in UHP Fe and Fe-8%Cr at higher doses up to 2 x 1019/m2 (∼13dpa). In thin-foil irradiation with 150keV Fe+ ions at 300C and room temperature, more complex microstructures started to develop in thicker regions of the foils at doses greater than about 2 x 1018/m2, apparently involving cooperative interaction, alignment and coalescence of smaller loops. First strings of loops all with the same ½〈111〉 Burgers vectors formed. In UHP Fe irradiated at 300C the damage then developed into colonies of resolvable interstitial loops with ½〈111〉 Burgers vectors. By a dose of 2 x 1019/m2, large (several hundred nanometre) finger-shaped loops with large shear components had developed by the growth and subsequent coalescence of smaller loops. Similar but finer-scale damage structures developed in UHP Fe irradiated at room temperature and in Fe-8%Cr irradiated at both room temperature and 300C.

Heavy-Ion Irradiations of Fe and Fe-Cr Model Alloys Part 2 - Damage Evolution in Thin-Foils at Higher Doses. M.Hernández-Mayoral, Z.Yao, M.L.Jenkins, M.A.Kirk: Philosophical Magazine, 2008, 88[21], 2881-97