Tomoaki Suzudo

Stability and mobility of rhenium and osmium in tungsten: first principles study

We report a series of ab initio studies based upon density functional theory for the behavior of rhenium and osmium atoms in body-centered-cubic tungsten crystal. Contrary to the fast one-dimensional migration of self-interstitial atoms, interstitials of these solute elements in tungsten have three-dimensional motion because they form a mixed dumbbell having a low rotation energy barrier. The migration of these solute elements strongly influences the effects of radiation upon the materials, and our results suggest that the low rotation energy barrier leading to three-dimensional migration is a property that is key to the explanation of the radiation effects experimentally observed in tungsten-rhenium and tungsten-osmium alloys.

Improving atomic displacement and replacement calculations with physically realistic damage models

Atomic collision processes are fundamental to numerous advanced materials technologies such as electron microscopy, semiconductor processing and nuclear power generation. Extensive experimental and computer simulation studies over the past several decades provide the physical basis for understanding the atomic-scale processes occurring during primary displacement events. The current international standard for quantifying this energetic particle damage, the Norgett−Robinson−Torrens displacements per atom (NRT-dpa) model, has nowadays several well-known limitations. In particular, the number of radiation defects produced in energetic cascades in metals is only ~1/3 the NRT-dpa prediction, while the number of atoms involved in atomic mixing is about a factor of 30 larger than the dpa value. Here we propose two new complementary displacement production estimators (athermal recombination corrected dpa, arc-dpa) and atomic mixing (replacements per atom, rpa) functions that extend the NRT-dpa by providing more physically realistic descriptions of primary defect creation in materials and may become additional standard measures for radiation damage quantification.The Norgett−Robinson−Torrens displacements per atom model is the benchmark to assess radiation damage in metals but has well-known limitations. Here, the authors use molecular dynamics to introduce material-specific modifications to describe radiation damage more realistically.

Effects of Carbon Impurity on Microstructural Evolution in Irradiated α-Iron

Abstract It is known that the presence of even a small amount of impurity in interstitial positions can, depending on temperature, have a drastic influence on the one-dimensional (1-D) motion of self-interstitial atom (SIA) loops, and thus, on the accumulation of radiation damage in materials. In this study, atomic-scale computer simulations based on a recently developed optimization technique have been performed to evaluate the binding energies of SIA loops with interstitial carbon, a vacancy-carbon (V-C) complex, and a vacancy as a function of loop size in α-iron. While weak and strong attractive interactions are found when an interstitial carbon atom and a vacancy, respectively, are located on the perimeter of an SIA loop, the interactions for both quickly weaken approaching the loop center. In contrast, for a wide range of loop sizes, significantly higher binding energies are obtained between an SIA loop and a V-C complex located within the habit plane of the loop. A cluster dynamics model was developed by taking into account the trapping effects of V-C complexes on 1-D migrating SIA loops, and preliminary calculations were performed to demonstrate the validity of the assumed trapping mechanism through a comparison of the microstructural evolution with experimental data in neutron-irradiated α-iron.

Suppression of radiation-induced point defects by rhenium and osmium interstitials in tungsten

Modeling the evolution of radiation-induced defects is important for finding radiation-resistant materials, which would be greatly appreciated in nuclear applications. We apply the density functional theory combined with comprehensive analyses of massive experimental database to indicate a mechanism to mitigate the effect of radiation on W crystals by adding particular solute elements that change the migration property of interstitials. The resultant mechanism is applicable to any body-centered-cubic (BCC) metals whose self-interstitial atoms become a stable crowdion and is expected to provide a general guideline for computational design of radiation-resistant alloys in the field of nuclear applications.

Atomistic modeling of He embrittlement at grain boundaries of α-Fe: a common feature over different grain boundaries

He atoms introduced into materials may lead them to fracture intergranularly, and understanding such an effect is a key issue in the design of future fusion reactors. In the current study, we investigated the decrease of grain boundary (GB) strength caused by He segregation at several kinds of α-Fe GBs by exploiting first principles calculations and a set of empirical potentials. We found enough evidence to support the notion that the GB cohesive energy, a critical measure of GB strength, approximately scales with the He concentration at the GB surface, regardless of the GB type.

A three-dimensional meso-scale computer modeling for bubble growth in metals

A new meso-scale three-dimensional computer model has been proposed to enhance the modeling capability of the bubble growth in metals, particularly helium bubble growth under conditions of post-irradiation annealing. We assume that the bubble growth is modeled by a process driven by energy minimization of the surface energy and thermal fluctuation within the framework of a Monte Carlo simulation method. We found that it is possible to simulate growing bubbles following the ideal gas law and in equilibrium with the surface tension. The simulation results show good agreement with some experimental evidence, in particular, of the log-normal bubble-size distribution. The extension of the model to the bubble growth on grain boundaries with reference to helium embrittlement has succeeded in reproducing a particular bubble shape observed in experiments.