Characterization of irradiation-induced dislocation loops in Vanadium at 25-500 °C

Vanadium-based alloys have emerged as promising candidates for structural materials in fusion applications. However, as its base metal, the response of V to irradiation has received limited attention in prior studies. To gain a fundamental understanding of the irradiation damage in V, its microstructure evolution under 6 MeV Ti ion irradiation at 25–500 °C is investigated in the present study, with the focus on the detailed and comprehensive characterization of the behavior of the irradiation-introduced dislocation loops. Under room temperature irradiation, the “black dot” dislocation loops agglomerate linearly into rafts, during which their Burgers vectors are well aligned. With the temperature increases to 300 °C, the size of rafts increases and the density decreases, while the size of small loops maintains similar to the room temperature irradiation condition. As the irradiation temperature reaches 500 °C, the defects become highly mobile, resulting in the formation of extended dislocation loops or lines with hundreds of nanometers in size, with the rafts vanishing. All the observable loops under this irradiation temperature range exhibit the Burgers vectors of a/2 < 111>. All the loops observed in the displacement region are identified to be interstitial-type, while a small portion of loops observed in the diffusion region under elevated temperatures are vacancy-type.