Modeling on Fe-Cr microstructure: evolution with Cr content

Full text of publication follows: The minimum energy configuration of interstitials in the Fe-Cr system, which is the base for the low activation steels being developed in the European fusion reactor materials community, is determined by magnetism. Magnetism plays also a role in the atomic configurations found with increasing Cr content. Results will be presented from a program in which the microstructure evolution produced after heavy ion irradiation in the range from room temperature to 80 K is studied as a function of the Cr content in alloys produced under well controlled conditions, i.e. from high purity elements and with adequate heat treatment. It is expected that these measurements will serve as matrix for model validation. The first step in such modeling sequence is being performed by modeling the evolution of displacement cascades in Fe using the Dudarev -Derlet and Mendeleev potentials for Fe and the Caro potential for Fe-Cr. It is of particular interest to study the evolution of high-energy cascades, where an attempt will be made to clarify the role of the evolution of sub-cascades. Kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) techniques will be used then to simulate the defect evolution. A new parallel kMC code is being implemented for this purpose. (authors)