Evolution of phase microstructure during irradiation

The phase microstructure of alloys is frequently severely altered during irradiation. Sluggish precipitation reactions including precipitation coarsening are accelerated by irradiation-enhanced diffusion. Radiation-induced segregation redistributes existing precipitate phases within the microstructure, induces precipitation of nonequilibrium phases and affects the composition of phases in multicomponent alloys. The displacement process causes disordering of ordered alloys and frequently amorphization, especially in intermetallic compounds, at low temperature. Although a good qualitative understanding of the basic process involved, i.e., displacement mixing, radiation-enhanced diffusion and radiation-induced segregation exists, methods for detailed quantitative modeling of the evolution of the microstructure of alloys remain to be developed. (author)