The microstructure of neutron-irradiated Fe–Cr alloys: A small-angle neutron scattering study

The effect of Cr on the irradiation-induced microstructure of neutron-irradiated Fe–Cr alloys is not yet known in detail. Small-angle neutron scattering was applied in order to provide the characteristics of nm-sized defects averaged over macroscopic volumes. Results are reported for a set of Fe–Cr alloys of Cr levels of 2.5, 5, 9 and 12.5 at.%, irradiated at 300 °C up to neutron exposures of 0.6 and 1.5 dpa. We have found that the incoherent magnetic scattering of the unirradiated alloys exhibits a systematic variation with the Cr content and that there is an irradiation-induced increase of the coherent magnetic scattering for each of the irradiated conditions. The effect of Cr on size and type of irradiation-induced scatterers is discussed. For 12.5 at.%Cr, the scatterers are unambiguously identified as α′ particles. For 2.5 and 5 at.%Cr, the scatterers are tentatively interpreted as clusters enriched with alloying Cr and impurity C. For 9 at.%Cr, a mixture of both kinds of scatterers explains the experimental findings.