Influence of primary substructure of aluminum crystals on damage parameters under neutron radiation

Investigation of specific pure aluminum monocrystals (99.99%) was conducted using metallography, microhardness, X-ray and structural analysis methods (running of monocrystals wobbling curves). To conduct the investigations, crystals possessing different levels of perfection - sizes and number of blocks, off-orientation angles between them - were selected. Two monocrystals are given for comparison. One of them has a large number of the blocks that are heavily off-oriented. The other one is practically mono block crystal. Investigation of microstructure of these crystals after neutron radiation (fluence 1·1023 n/m2) showed that the polygonization processes taking place in the crystals during irradiation were different. Active formation of new block takes place in more perfect crystal. Investigation of the crystals structure under postradiation batch annealing (up to the temperature rates under the melting point) showed that there was a decrease in off-orientation angles between the blocks in both crystals. However, none of the crystals returned to its primary state