Evolution of defect cluster distributions during irradiation

Defects produced by irradiation are often strongly spatially correlated. Energetic primary recoil atoms produce cascades with vacant lattice sites predominantly in the central regions, and interstitial atoms at the periphery. A fraction of the defects produced form clusters during cascade events. Because of their spatial distribution more mobile interstitial atoms than vacancies are released into the matrix following the cascade events. Populations of vacancy and interstitial clusters evolve towards quasi-steady-state distributions. As long as vacancy clusters are thermally moderately stable, i. e., at temperatures below rapid self diffusion, an excess interstitial flux persists in the matrix; as a consequence, vacancy clusters formed in cascades shrink, and interstitial clusters grow. We examine the evolution of these cluster distributions, and their effects on sink strength and radiation-enhanced diffusion, as functions of dose for irradiations at moderate temperatures. At temperatures at which thermal evaporation from vacancy clusters can be neglected, the evolution of the cluster densities is characteristic of the primary recoil spectrum, but is independent of temperature or dose rate. The sink strength, radiation-enhanced diffusion, as well as other consequences of the evolving distributions such as the imbalance of the interstitial and vacancy fluxes in the matrix, approach slowly-changing quasi-steady-state values in a fraction of one displacement per atom, although certain details of the cluster distributions, e. g., the development of large interstitial loops, require several dpa's to approach steady state values