Atomistic analysis of radiation-induced segregation in ion-irradiated stainless steel 316

Abstract

Stainless steel (SS) is a well-known material for the internal parts of nuclear power plants. It is known that these alloys exhibit radiation-induced segregation (RIS) at point defect sinks at moderate temperature, while in service. The RIS behavior of SS can be a potential problem by increasing the susceptibility to irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking. In this work, the RIS behavior of solute atoms at sinks in SS 316 irradiated with Fe4+ ions were characterized by atom probe tomography (APT). There were torus-shaped defects along with a depletion of Cr and enrichment of Ni and Si. These clusters are believed to be dislocation loops resulting from irradiation. The segregation of solutes was also observed for various defect shapes. These observations are consistent with other APT results from the literature. The composition of the clusters was analyzed quantitatively almost at the atomic scale. Despite the limitations of the experiments, the APT analysis was well suited for discovering the structure of irradiation defects and performing a quantitative analysis of RIS in irradiated specimens.