The radiation performance of a variety of complex oxides is predicted on the basis of a material's propensity to accommodate lattice point defects. The calculations indicate that a particular class of oxides possessing the fluorite crystal structure should accept radiation-induced defects into their lattices far more readily than a structurally similar class of oxides based on the pyrochlore crystal structure. Preliminary radiation damage experiments substantiate the prediction that fluorites are inherently more radiation resistant than pyrochlores. These results may permit the chemical durability and radiation tolerance of potential hosts for actinides and radioactive wastes to be tailored.

Ceramics destined for use in hostile environments such as nuclear reactors or waste immobilization must be highly durable and especially resistant to radiation damage effects. In particular, they must not be prone to amorphization or swelling. Few ceramics meet these criteria and much work has been devoted in recent years to identifying radiation-tolerant ceramics and the characteristics that promote radiation tolerance. Here, we examine trends in radiation damage behaviour for families of compounds related by crystal structure. Specifically, we consider oxides with structures related to the fluorite crystal structure. We demonstrate that improved amorphization resistance characteristics are to be found in compounds that have a natural tendency to accommodate lattice disorder.

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The authors demonstrate a substantial enhancement in radiation-induced amorphization resistance for single-phased nanocrystalline (NC) versus large-grained polycrystalline MgGa2O4. NC and large-grained MgGa2O4 were irradiated at ∼100K with 300keV Kr++ ions to fluences ranging between 5×1019 and 4×1020Kr∕m2. Large-grained MgGa2O4 samples began to amorphize by a fluence of 5×1019Kr∕m2, while NC MgGa2O4 remained crystalline with no evidence for structural changes (other than moderate grain growth in the lowermost implanted region), to a fluence of 4×1020Kr∕m2. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental study to reveal enhanced amorphization resistance in an irradiated, single-phase, NC material.

Materials for applications in hostile environments, such as nuclear reactors or radioactive waste immobilization, require extremely high resistance to radiation damage, such as resistance to amorphization or volume swelling. Nanocrystalline materials have been reported to present exceptionally high radiation-tolerance to amorphization. In principle, grain boundaries that are prevalent in nanomaterials could act as sinks for point-defects, enhancing defect recombination. In this paper we present evidence for this mechanism in nanograined Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ), associated with the observation that the concentration of defects after irradiation using heavy ions (Kr+, 400 keV) is inversely proportional to the grain size. HAADF images suggest the short migration distances in nanograined YSZ allow radiation induced interstitials to reach the grain boundaries on the irradiation time scale, leaving behind only vacancy clusters distributed within the grain. Because of the relatively low temperature of the irradiations and the fact that interstitials diffuse thermally more slowly than vacancies, this result indicates that the interstitials must reach the boundaries directly in the collision cascade, consistent with previous simulation results. Concomitant radiation-induced grain growth was observed which, as a consequence of the non-uniform implantation, caused cracking of the nano-samples induced by local stresses at the irradiated/non-irradiated interfaces.