PNNL

Abstract

Rate theory of the radiation-induced precipitation in solids is modified with account of non-equilibrium fluctuations driven by the “gas” of lattice solitons (a.k.a. “quodons”) produced by irradiation. According to quantitative estimations, a steady-state density of the quodon gas under sufficiently intense irradiation can be comparable to the density of classical phonon gas. The modified rate theory is applied to modelling of copper precipitation in FeCu binary alloys under electron irradiation. In contrast to the classical rate theory, which disagrees strongly with experimental data on all precipitation parameters, the modified rate theory describes quite well both the evolution of precipitates and the matrix concentration of copper measured by different methods.