Ericmoore Jossou1,Anton Schneider2,Cheng Sun3,Yongfeng Zhang2,Shirish Chodankar1,Dmytro Nykypanchuk1,Jian Gan3,Lynne Ecker1,Simerjeet Gill1
Brookhaven National Laboratory1,University of Wisconsin–Madison2,Idaho National Laboratory3
Ericmoore Jossou1,Anton Schneider2,Cheng Sun3,Yongfeng Zhang2,Shirish Chodankar1,Dmytro Nykypanchuk1,Jian Gan3,Lynne Ecker1,Simerjeet Gill1
Brookhaven National Laboratory1,University of Wisconsin–Madison2,Idaho National Laboratory3
Self-organization of defects, such as fission gas bubbles in nuclear fuel alloys can lead to higher capacity for fission gas storage and help mitigate swelling caused by fission gases in nuclear reactors. We discuss the physical mechanism of self-organization of Kr in Mo under ion implantation. The ion fluence and temperature-dependent formation of Kr solid bubble superlattice (SBS) in Mo was investigated using synchrotron-based small-angle x-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy in combination with Atomic Kinetic Monte Carlo (AKMC) modeling. Early-stage self-organization of solid bubbles as a function of dose and temperature will be discussed. The mechanism of Kr SBS is compared with He bubble ordering in Mo matrix. AKMC simulations is used to correlate the binding energy of Kr with the mobility and the eventual stability of Kr SBS. Overall, our work sheds light on the formation mechanism of noble gas superlattice towards the development of radiation tolerant materials.