Effects of deuterium implantation and subsequent electron irradiation on the microstructure of Fe–10Cr model alloy

The interactions between deuterium atoms and irradiation defects in materials are important for designing materials in fusion reactors due to the fact that deuterium widely exists in nuclear reactions, and that the interactions provide a means to study the dynamic behavior of the isotopes of hydrogen in the material based on the isotope effects. In the current paper, the effects of deuterium implantation and the subsequent electron irradiation on the microstructure of Fe–10 wt%Cr model alloy have been investigated using ultra-high voltage transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The in situ observation showed that the size of dislocation loops increases with increasing electron irradiation dose and irradiation temperature. No distinct voids were observed at irradiation temperature up to 823 K. The migration energy (Em) of deuterium–vacancy complex was calculated from the growth speed of dislocation loops at 623–773 K. A high-resolution TEM image of dislocation loops because of deuterium ion implantation was also achieved.