Correlation of microstructure and strength during stage III annealing of irradiated vanadium

Abstract

The microstructure of Vanadium irradiated to a fluence of 1.0 × 10¹⁹ n/cm² E < 1 MeV at a temperature of 55 °C was quantitatively analyzed after irradiation and post-irradiation annealing and correlated with changes in the strength as determined from microhardness measurements. Radiation anneal hardening during Stage III annealing was not accompanied by a change in the size or number of defect aggregates. It is shown that the strength changes and migration kinetics of Stage III are consistent with the migration of oxygen and/or carbon to the defect aggregates. It is suggested that the simultaneous observation of no growth of defect aggregates and radiation anneal hardening in Stage III can be used to differentiate between impurity migration and intrinsic defect migration.