Irradiation hardening of Fe–9Cr-based alloys and ODS Eurofer: Effect of helium implantation and iron-ion irradiation at 300 °C including sequence effects

Abstract Single-beam, dual-beam and sequential iron- and/or helium-ion irradiations are widely accepted to emulate more application-relevant but hardly accessible irradiation conditions of generation-IV fission and fusion candidate materials for certain purposes such as material pre-selection, identification of basic mechanisms or model calibration. However, systematic investigations of sequence effects capable to critically question individual approaches are largely missing. In the present study, sequence effects of iron-ion irradiations at 300 °C up to 5 dpa and helium implantations up to 100 appm He are investigated by means of post-irradiation nanoindentation of an Fe9%Cr model alloy, ferritic/martensitic 9%Cr steels T91 and Eurofer97 and oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Eurofer. Different types of sequence effects, both synergistic and antagonistic, are identified and tentative interpretations are suggested. It is found that different accelerated irradiation approaches have a great impact on the mechanical hardening. This stresses the importance of experimental design in attempts to emulate in-reactor conditions.