Dislocation loops in Eurofer and a Fe-Cr alloy irradiated by ions at 350 and 550 °C at 3 dpa: Effect of dose rate

The purpose is to investigate the secondary defects distribution to test the influence of the irradiation mode on the microstructure in Eurofer97 and a model alloy (Fe-9 wt% Cr). Two modes are experimented at the same damage (3 dpa) at 350 and 550 degrees C. The first is a long-time continuous irradiation and the second is a short-time irradiation. The materials studied are irradiated by krypton ions. The first step consists in qualitative characterization of the secondary defects. Post irradiation in situ annealing experiments show that accumulated defects condense at temperature higher than 550 degrees C in Eurofer. In the investigated conditions, the irradiation mode does not induce a major difference: the morphologies, sizes and densities of loops are quite similar. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.