Microstructural changes in oxygen-irradiated zirconium-based alloy characterised by X-ray diffraction techniques

We have carried out irradiation with 116 MeV O5+ ions on Zr–1Sn–1Nb–0.1Fe (ZIRLO) alloy at different doses and the microstructural parameters of the irradiated samples have been characterised by X-ray Diffraction Line Profile Analysis (XRDLPA). The average volume-weighted and surface-weighted domain size, microstrain and dislocation density have been estimated as a function of dose. There was a drastic decrease in domain size from unirradiated sample to the sample at a dose of 1 × 1017 O5+/m2, but these values saturated with increasing dose of irradiation. The values of microstrain were found to increase with dose. The dislocation density increased almost by an order of magnitude for the samples irradiated with 1 × 1018 O5+/m2 and 5 × 1018 O5+/m2 as compared to the unirradiated samples.