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On the correlation between self-interstitial cluster diffusivity and irradiation-induced swelling in Fe–Cr alloys

D Terentyev, L Malerba* and A V Barashev**

Physique des Solides Irradiès et des Nanostructures CP23, Universitè Libre de Bruxelles, Bd. du Triomphe, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium

*SCK-CEN, RMO Department, Boeretang 200, B-2400 Mol, Belgium

**Department of Engineering, The University of Liverpool, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69 3GH, UK

It is shown that the dependence of self-interstitial cluster diffusivity in Fe–Cr alloys on Cr concentration correlates with that of swelling in these alloys under neutron irradiation; namely, with increasing chromium concentration the cluster diffusivity first decreases and then increases. The origin of such behaviour lies in a relatively long-ranged, ~1 nm, attractive interaction between Cr atoms and crowdions. The minimum diffusivity is realized for ~11 at.% Cr, where all crowdions constituting the cluster interact with Cr atoms, but the interaction fields of different Cr atoms do not overlap.

Phil. Mag. Lett., 85 (11), 2005, 587-594