Stability of nanoclusters in 14YWT oxide dispersion strengthened steel under heavy ion-irradiation by atom probe tomography

14YWT oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steel was irradiated with of 5 MeV Ni2+ ions, at 300 °C, 450 °C, and 600 °C to a damage level of 100 dpa. The stability of Ti–Y–O nanoclusters was investigated by applying atom probe tomography (APT) in voltage mode, of the samples before and after irradiations. The average size and number density of the nanoclusters was determined using the maximum separation method. These techniques allowed for the imaging of nanoclusters to sizes well below the resolution limit of conventional transmission electron microscopy techniques. The most significant changes were observed for samples irradiated at 300 °C where the size (average Guinier radius) and number density of nanoclusters were observed to decrease from 1.1 nm to 0.8 nm and 12 × 1023 to 3.6 × 1023, respectively. In this study, the nanoclusters are more stable at higher temperature.