Generation of c-component edge dislocations in α-zirconium during neutron irradiation – An atomistic study

The nucleation and multiplication of c-component edge dislocation segments during neutron irradiation in zirconium and its alloys is known to have important consequences to their in-reactor deformation behavior. Although there are ample experimental observations showing the close correlation between the edge-type and the screw-type of c-dislocations, the relation between them is unclear. In this paper, we performed atomistic study of the interaction between a [0 0 0 1] screw dislocation and a vacancy cluster in the form of a platelet on the basal plane. The local minimum-energy configuration was obtained using the conjugate-gradient method, with boundary relaxation achieved via a modified Green’s function method. Under stress-free conditions, the vacancy clusters maintained their cavity nature. With a [0 0 0 1] screw dislocation in the close neighborhood, vacancy clusters containing more than 23 vacancies collapse into faulted vacancy loops. Interaction at even closer range leads to the disappearance of the vacancy cluster and the development of an edge component on the originally straight screw dislocation in the form of a helical line. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the experimentally observed behavior of growth acceleration in zirconium and its alloys.