Influence of chemical disorder on energy dissipation and defect evolution in concentrated solid solution alloys.
A grand challenge in materials research is to understand complex electronic correlation and non-equilibrium atomic interactions, and how such intrinsic properties and dynamic processes affect energy transfer and defect evolution in irradiated materials. Here we report that chemical disorder, with an increasing number of principal elements and/or altered concentrations of specific elements, in single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys can lead to substantial reduction in electron mean free path and orders of magnitude decrease in electrical and thermal conductivity. The subsequently slow energy dissipation affects defect dynamics at the early stages, and consequentially may result in less deleterious defects. Suppressed damage accumulation with increasing chemical disorder from pure nickel to binary and to more complex quaternary solid solutions is observed. Understanding and controlling energy dissipation and defect dynamics by altering alloy complexity may pave the way for new design principles of radiation-tolerant structural alloys for energy applications.
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
Yanwen
Y
Zhang
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
G Malcolm
GM
Stocks
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
Ke
K
Jin
Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
Chenyang
C
Lu
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
Hongbin
H
Bei
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
Brian C
BC
Sales
Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2104, USA.
Lumin
L
Wang
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
Laurent K
LK
Béland
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
Roger E
RE
Stoller
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
German D
GD
Samolyuk
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Magdalena
M
Caro
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Alfredo
A
Caro
Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
William J
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9017-7365
WJ
Weber