No Arabic abstract
Defect microstructures formed in ion-irradiated metals, for example iron or tungsten, often exhibit patterns of spatially ordered nano-scale dislocation loops. We show that such ordered dislocation loop structures may form spontaneously as a result of Brownian motion of loops, biased by the angular-dependent elastic interaction between the loops. Patterns of spatially ordered loops form once the local density of loops produced by ion irradiation exceeds a critical threshold value.
Using _in situ_ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we have observed nanometre scale dislocation loops formed when an ultra-high-purity tungsten foil is irradiated with a very low fluence of self-ions. Analysis of the TEM images has revealed the largest loops to be predominantly of prismatic 1/2<111> type and of vacancy character. The formation of such dislocation loops is surprising since isolated loops are expected to be highly mobile, and should escape from the foil. In this work we show that the observed size and number density of loops can be explained by the fact that the loops are _not_ isolated - the loops formed in close proximity in the cascades interact with each other and with vacancy clusters, also formed in cascades, through long-range elastic fields, which prevent the escape of loops from the foil. We find that experimental observations are well reproduced by object Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of evolution of cascades _only_ if elastic interaction between the loops is taken into account. Our analysis highlights the profound effect of elastic interaction between defects on the microstructural evolution of irradiated materials.
In recent years, observations of highly-ordered, hexagonal arrays of self-organized nanostructures on binary or impurity-laced targets under normal-incidence ion irradiation have excited interest in this phenomenon as a potential route to high-throughput, low-cost manufacture of nanoscale devices or nanostructured coatings. The currently-prominent explanation for these structures is a morphological instability driven by ion erosion discovered by Bradley and Shipman; however, recent parameter estimates via molecular dynamics simulations suggest that this erosive instability may not be active for the representative GaSb system in which hexagonal structures were first observed. Motivated by experimental and numerical evidence suggesting the possible importance of phase separation in ion-irradiated compounds, we here generalize the Bradley-Shipman theory to include the effect of ion-assisted phase separation. The resulting system admits a chemically-driven finite-wavelength instability that can explain the order of observed patterns even when the erosive Bradley-Shipman instability, and in a relevant simplifying limit, provides an intuitive instability criteria that agrees qualitatively with experimental observations on pattern wavelengths. Finally, we identify a characteristic experimental signature that distinguishes the chemical and morphological instabilities, and highlights the need for specific additional experimental data on the GaSb system.
Dipolar dislocation loops, prevalent in fcc metals, are widely recognized as controlling many physical aspects of plastic deformation. We present results of 3D dislocation dynamics simulations that shed light on the mechanisms of their formation, motion, interactions, and large-scale patterning. We identify two main formation mechanisms, enabled by cross-slip, and show that arrays of dipoles can be easily formed as a result of the interaction between glide screw dislocations. We present a systematic analysis of the spectrum of possible junctions that can form as a result of mutual interaction between dipoles, and between dipoles and glide dislocations. We show that fully immobile dislocation segments arise in particular cases of these interactions, leading to hardening and Frank-Read type sources. We reveal that the collective motion of dipolar loop arrays can be induced by glide dislocations in the channels of Persistent Slip Bands (PSB), and result in their clustering within PSB channel walls. An efficient tripolar drag mechanism is found to contribute to the clustering of dipolar loops near channel walls.
In published papers, the Gibbs free energy of ferroelectric materials has usually been quantified by the retention of 6th or 8th order polarization terms. In this paper, a newly analytical model of Gibbs free energy, thereout, a new model of polarization-electric field hysteresis loops in ferroelectric materials has been derived mathematically. As a model validation, four patterns of polarization-electric field hysteresis loops of ferroelectric materials have been depicted by using the model. The calculated results indicated that the self-similar model can characterize the various patterns of hysteresis loops in ferroelectric materials through adjusting the external excitation or the synthetically parameter (e.g., electric, temperature, and stress, etc.) employed in the model.
The field of Materials Science is concerned with, e.g., properties and performance of materials. An important class of materials are crystalline materials that usually contain ``dislocations -- a line-like defect type. Dislocation decisively determine many important materials properties. Over the past decades, significant effort was put into understanding dislocation behavior across different length scales both with experimental characterization techniques as well as with simulations. However, for describing such dislocation structures there is still a lack of a common standard to represent and to connect dislocation domain knowledge across different but related communities. An ontology offers a common foundation to enable knowledge representation and data interoperability, which are important components to establish a ``digital twin. This paper outlines the first steps towards the design of an ontology in the dislocation domain and shows a connection with the already existing ontologies in the materials science and engineering domain.