DOE OSTI · 2570728
Decoding the interstitial/vacancy nature of dislocation loops with their morphological fingerprints in face-centered cubic structure
Abstract
Dislocation loops are critical defects inducing detrimental effects like embrittlement and swelling in materials under irradiation. Distinguishing their nature (interstitial- or vacancy-type) is a long-standing challenge with great implications for understanding radiation damage. Here, we demonstrate that the morphology of radiation-induced Frank loops can unveil their nature in face-centered cubic (fcc) structure: Circular loops are interstitial-type in all fcc materials, while segmented loops are vacancy-type in high stacking fault energy (SFE) alloys but varied-type in low SFE and high-entropy alloys. The polygonal shape is attributed to the dissociation of an a 0 /3<111> dislocation into an a 0 /6<112> Shockley partial and an a 0 /6<110> stair-rod dislocation. The dissociation of vacancy loops is energetically favorable, whereas interstitial loops require external stimuli to promote dislocation propagation. This “morphology-nature” correlation not only highlights the asymmetry of vacancy/interstitial loops but also offers an efficient way to distinguish loop nature for a wide range of materials.
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Ma, Kan [City Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon (Hong Kong); Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Univ. of Birmingham (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000157295477), Guo, Long [Hunan Univ., Changsha (China)] (ORCID:0009000922615616), Dartois, Antoine [Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette (France)] (ORCID:0009000229267633), Meslin, Estelle [Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette (France)] (ORCID:0000000303574256), Ophus, Colin [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000323488558), Décamps, Brigitte [Univ. Paris-Saclay, Orsay (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Orsay (France). Inst. National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3), Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab)] (ORCID:000000022168980X), Fraczkiewicz, Anna [Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne (EMSE) (France); Centre Sciences des Matériaux et des Structures (SMS), Saint-Étienne (France)], Knowles, Alexander J. [Univ. of Birmingham (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000239184367), Wang, Lumin [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)] (ORCID:0000000238726224), Tissot, Olivier [Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette (France)] (ORCID:000900043149651X), Prima, Frédéric [PSL Research University, Paris (France); Chimie ParisTech-CNRS (France). Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris], Gao, Fei [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)] (ORCID:0000000167395076), Deng, Huiqiu [Hunan Univ., Changsha (China)] (ORCID:000000018986104X), Loyer-Prost, Marie [Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA-Saclay), Gif-sur-Yvette (France)] (ORCID:0000000206887963). 2025-04-11. Decoding the interstitial/vacancy nature of dislocation loops with their morphological fingerprints in face-centered cubic structure. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq4070
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