Multi-technique characterization of the precipitates in thermally aged and neutron irradiated Fe-Cu and Fe-Cu-Mn model alloys: Atom probe tomography reconstruction implications

Shu, Shipeng; Wirth, Brian D.; Wells, Peter; Morgan, Dane; Odette, G.R.

doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2017.12.006

Cited by 80 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…However, as thoroughly discussed in the literature, this high Fe concentration is mainly caused by trajectory aberration in the APT measurement [46][47][48][49][50][51]. It was recently shown by Shu et al that the true Fe concentration in the Cu precipitate at ~ 300°C is less than a few percent [17]. At higher fluence, as shown in Figure 1d, the precipitate size increases by ≈ 60%.…”

Section: Morphological Characteristics Of Cu-mnnisi Co-precipitatementioning

confidence: 76%

“…More details regarding the reconstruction method and parameters can be found in Refs. [14] and [17]. 7…”

Section: Atom Probe Tomographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since Cu is highly insoluble and diffuses rapidly, the initial precipitates are copper-rich, and often alloyed with Mn, Ni and Si. These precipitates form very rapidly, at concentrations above > 0.1 at.% around 300C, due to radiation enhanced diffusion [17]. Previous thermodynamic models suggested that in addition to enriching the Cu core, solutes such as Mn, Ni and Si form a surrounding shell due to reduction of the high interfacial energy between Fe and Cu [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermodynamics and kinetics of core-shell versus appendage co-precipitation morphologies: An example in the Fe-Cu-Mn-Ni-Si system

Shu¹,

Wells²,

Almirall³

et al. 2018

Acta Materialia

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What determines precipitate morphologies in co-precipitating alloy systems? We focus on alloys of two precipitating phases, with the fast-precipitating phase acting as heterogeneous nucleation sites for a second phase manifesting slower kinetics. Kinetic lattice Monte Carlo simulations show that the interplay between interfacial and ordering energies, plus active diffusion paths, strongly affect the selection of core-shell verses appendage morphologies. We study a FeCuMnNiSi alloy using the combination of atom probe tomography and simulations, and show that the ordering energy reduction of the MnNiSi phase heterogeneously nucleated on a pre-existing copper-rich precipitate exceeds the energy penalty of a predominantly Fe/Cu interface, leading to initial appendage, rather than core-shell, formation. Diffusion of Mn, Ni and Si around and through the Cu core towards the ordered phase results in subsequent appendage growth. We further show that in cases with higher primary precipitate interface energies and/or suppressed ordering, the coreshell morphology is favored.3

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Section: Morphological Characteristics Of Cu-mnnisi Co-precipitatementioning

confidence: 76%

“…More details regarding the reconstruction method and parameters can be found in Refs. [14] and [17]. 7…”

Section: Atom Probe Tomographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermodynamics and kinetics of core-shell versus appendage co-precipitation morphologies: An example in the Fe-Cu-Mn-Ni-Si system

Shu¹,

Wells²,

Almirall³

et al. 2018

Acta Materialia

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“…Concerning the Fe content in the NSRC, our model predicts it to be in a range between 5% and 10%, as reported in the extra figures in the supplementary material. This is however difficult to compare with experimental evidence, because APT data is likely to be influenced by inherent artefacts associated with this technique [33,92]. For this reason, the central panels in Fig.…”

Section: Application and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dominating Mechanisms for the Formation of Solute-Rich Clusters in Steels under Irradiation

et al. 2019

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The formation of nano-sized, coherent, solute-rich clusters (NSRC) is known to be an important factor degrading the macroscopic properties of steels under irradiation. The mechanisms driving their formation are still debated. This work focuses on low-Cu reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels, where solute species are generally not expected to precipitate. We rationalize the processes taking place at the nanometre scale under irradiation, relying on the latest theoretical and experimental evidence on atomic-level diffusion and transport processes. These are compiled in a new model, based on the object kinetic Monte Carlo (OKMC) technique. We evaluate the relevance of the underlying physical assumptions by applying the model to a large variety of irradiation experiments. Our model predictions are compared with new experimental data obtained with atom probe tomography and small angle neutron scattering, complemented with information from the literature. The results of this study reveal that the role of immobilized selfinterstitial atoms (SIA) loops dominates the nucleation process of NSRC.

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“…6 the apparent size of the particles as a function of their real size as reported by experimental studies using both SAXS or SANS and APT. The crosses correspond to data from recent literature [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] covering a range of alloy systems, including maraging steels, Fe-Cu alloys, ODS-steels, Al-based alloys. We simply plot the values reported in tables or graphs.…”

Section: Comparison With Experimental Reports From the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Metrology of small particles and solute clusters by atom probe tomography

2020

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Atom probe tomography (APT) is routinely used for analyzing property-enhancing particles in the nanometer-size range and below, and plays a prominent role in the analysis of solute clusters. However, the question of how well these small particles are measured has never been addressed because of a lack of a reliable benchmark. Here, to address this critical gap, we use an approach that allows direct comparison of APT and small-angle (X-Ray) scattering (SA(X)S) performed on the same material. We introduce the notion of an effective spatial resolution for the analysis of particles, which, importantly in this context, is very different than the technique's inherent spatial resolution. This effective resolution is highly specific to the system being considered, as well as the analysis conditions. There is no hard limit below which the technique will fail, but for particles with a radius of order of 2σ = 1 nm, i.e. 250 atoms, cannot be accurately measured, even though the particles are detected. This thorough metrological assessment of APT in the analysis of particles allows us to discuss the pulse spread function of the technique and the physics underpinning its limits. We conclude that great care should be taken when analysing solute clusters by APT, in particular when reporting particle size and composition.

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Multi-technique characterization of the precipitates in thermally aged and neutron irradiated Fe-Cu and Fe-Cu-Mn model alloys: Atom probe tomography reconstruction implications

Cited by 80 publications

References 70 publications

Thermodynamics and kinetics of core-shell versus appendage co-precipitation morphologies: An example in the Fe-Cu-Mn-Ni-Si system

Thermodynamics and kinetics of core-shell versus appendage co-precipitation morphologies: An example in the Fe-Cu-Mn-Ni-Si system

The Dominating Mechanisms for the Formation of Solute-Rich Clusters in Steels under Irradiation

Metrology of small particles and solute clusters by atom probe tomography

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