Dislocation Loop Generation Differences between Thin Films and Bulk in EFDA Pure Iron under Self-Ion Irradiation at 20 MeV

In the present investigation, high-energy self-ion irradiation experiments (20 MeV Fe+4) were performed on two types of pure Fe samples to evaluate the formation of dislocation loops as a function of material volume. The choice of model material, namely EFDA pure Fe, was made to emulate experiments simulated with computational models that study defect evolution. The experimental conditions were an ion fluence of 4.25 and 8.5 × 1015 ions/cm2 and an irradiation temperature of 350 and 450 °C, respectively. First, the ions pass through the samples, which are thin films of less than 100 nm. With this procedure, the formation of the accumulated damage zone, which is the peak where the ions stop, and the injection of interstitials are prevented. As a result, the effect of two free surfaces on defect formation can be studied. In the second type of experiments, the same irradiations were performed on bulk samples to compare the creation of defects in the first 100 nm depth with the microstructure found in the whole thickness of the thin films. Apparent differences were found between the thin foil irradiation and the first 100 nm in bulk specimens in terms of dislocation loops, even with a similar primary knock-on atom (PKA) spectrum. In thin films, the most loops identified in all four experimental conditions were b ±a0<100>{200} type with sizes of hundreds of nm depending on the experimental conditions, similarly to bulk samples where practically no defects were detected. These important results would help validate computational simulations about the evolution of defects in alpha iron thin films irradiated with energetic ions at large doses, which would predict the dislocation nucleation and growth.