Thermal diffusivity in ion-irradiated single-crystal iron, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten measured using transient grating spectroscopy
A. P. C. Wylie, Kevin B. Woller, Saleem Al Dajani, Benjamin Dacus, E.J. Pickering, Michael Preuß, Michael Philip Short
Abstract
The speed-up of radiation science development with the advent of ion-irradiation experiments has, until recently, been omitted in the post-irradiation examination technique. This paper reports the results of transient grating spectroscopy—a rapid, non-destructive, in situ photothermal surface technique—of ion-irradiated single-crystals of iron, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten at room temperature. Thermal diffusivity was used to track damage development throughout irradiation, with 5 MeV self-ion irradiated iron, chromium, and vanadium showing little to no change up to damages of the order of 1 dpa. 5 MeV Si3+-ion irradiated tungsten exhibits a reduction of thermal diffusivity from 0.78(7) to 0.29(2) cm2 s−1 with logarithmically increasing dose over a similar damage range. A comparison to literature of transient grating spectroscopy thermal diffusivity values past and present shows good agreement; radiation-induced change can be clearly distinguished from differences between mono- and poly-crystalline tungsten.