Conditions for effects of radiation pulsing

The possibility of pulsing effects on radiation damage is due to differences in the delay times of relevant defect reactions and/or to the non-linear dependence of such reactions on defect production rates. Thus, significant pulsing effects require (1) proper relationships of the internal time scales of defect production and reaction to the time scales of pulsing and (2) sufficiently large pulsing induced fluctuations in relevant microstructural variables. We show that the first condition, which we quantify by a ‘relative dynamic bias’, is indeed fulfilled in wide ranges of the main irradiation parameters. The second condition, quantified by an ‘absolute dynamic bias’, is, however, found to restrict the parameter ranges of possible pulsing effects substantially. For planned spallation neutron sources and similar accelerator driven systems facilities we find, for instance, that, in the temperature range of interest, the defect yield of one pulse (controlling the absolute dynamic bias) is much too small to allow any significant pulsing effect. We introduce and discuss maps for the occurrence of significant pulsing effects in the space of the main irradiation parameters.