PNNL

Abstract

Grain growth of nanocrystalline materials is generally thermally activated, but can also be driven by irradiation at much lower temperature. In nanocrystalline ceria and zirconia, contributions from both displacement damage and ionization to the grain growth are identified. Our atomistic simulations have revealed fast grain boundary (GB) movements due to the high density of disorder near GBs. Our experimental results have shown that irradiation-induced grain growth is a function of total energy deposited, where the excitation of target electrons and displacement of lattice atoms both contribute to the overall disorder and both play important roles in grain growth. The coupling of energy deposition to the electronic and lattice structures should both be taken into consideration when engineering nanostructural materials.