title: Nanoscale engineering of radiation tolerant silicon carbide.
abstract: Radiation tolerance is determined by how effectively the microstructure can remove point defects produced by irradiation. Engineered nanocrystalline SiC with a high-density of stacking faults (SFs) has significantly enhanced recombination of interstitials and vacancies, leading to self-healing of irradiation-induced defects. While single crystal SiC readily undergoes an irradiation-induced crystalline to amorphous transformation at room temperature, the nano-engineered SiC with a high-density of SFs exhibits more than an order of magnitude increase in radiation resistance. Molecular dynamics simulations of collision cascades show that the nano-layered SFs lead to enhanced mobility of interstitial Si atoms. The remarkable radiation resistance in the nano-engineered SiC is attributed to the high-density of SFs within nano-sized grain structures that significantly enhance point defect annihilation.
authors.affiliation: Materials Science & Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 4500S (A148), MS 6138, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6138, USA. Zhangy1@ornl.gov
authors.forename: Yanwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishimaru
authors.forename: Tamas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Varga
authors.forename: Takuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oda
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hardiman
authors.forename: Haizhou
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Yutai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katoh
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shannon
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Weber