The effect of alloying nickel with iron on the supersonic ballistic stage of high energy displacement cascades

Abstract Previous experimental and theoretical studies suggest that the production of extended defect structures by collision cascades is inhibited in equiatomic NiFe, in comparison to pure Ni. It is also known that the production of such extend defect structures results from the formation of subcascades by high-energy recoils and their subsequent interaction. A detailed analysis of the ballistics of 40 keV cascades in Ni and NiFe is performed to identify the formation of such subcascades and to assess their spatial distribution. It is found that subcascades in Ni and NiFe are created with nearly identical energies and distributed similarly in space. This suggests that the differences in production of extended defect structures is not related to processes taking place in the ballistic phase of the collision cascade. These results can be generalized to other, more chemically complex, concentrated alloys where the elements have similar atomic numbers, such as many high-entropy alloys.