Advances in Radiation-Induced Nanostructuration of Materials
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Materials Characterization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 9785
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
By definition, a nanostructure is an object that has at least one dimension that is smaller than 100nm. A bulk material is qualified as nanostructured when it contains structural elements, such as crystallites, particles, or clusters, with a characteristic size of a few nanometers. These nanostructured materials are increasingly required in applications including electronics, photonics or extreme environments, since nanostructures confer unique properties to the materials. Nanometer-sized microstructures can be achieved through both equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes, including irradiation and ion beam modification.
Irradiation is a non-equilibrium process where point defects, such as vacancies and self-interstitials, are created in high concentrations owing to atom displacement caused by collision cascades. These point defects are responsible for the nanostructuration of the irradiated materials through different processes. First, these defects are mobile and travel to sinks, resulting in the enhancement of thermal kinetics and the segregation of atoms that have a preferential association with the defect flux. These diffusion processes coupled with ballistic ejection can cause microstructure refinement by reducing the size of pre-existing precipitates and grains, or by triggering the nucleation of nanophases. Second, the condensation of vacancies and interstitials produces a wide variety of 2D and 3D nanodefects, namely, defect clusters, dislocation loops, voids and bubbles, which could modify the mechanical and electronic properties of the irradiated material. Finally, nanostructuration under irradiation is also achieved through the ability of the previously mentioned nanostructures to self-assemble in well-organized, two- or three-dimensional periodic arrangements with nanometer-sized wavelengths.
Understanding the nanostructuration of materials under irradiation constitutes a challenging issue that has the potential to greatly expand the use of nanostructured materials in a variety of fields—from electronic devices to applications with extreme environments.
The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight the advances in the latest developments and understanding of the relationship between irradiation and nanostructure from both theoretical and experimental points of view.
Articles including full papers, communications, and reviews are welcome contributions. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Nanostructure stability;
- Ion beam modification;
- Radiation-induced nanophase;
- Phase decomposition;
- Radiation-induced segregation;
- Clustering: formation of 2D and 3D defects;
- Self-organization of nanostructure.
Dr. Joël Ribis
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- irradiation
- ion beam modification
- 2D and 3D defects
- nanoprecipitation
- nanophase
- phase decomposition
- grain stability
- self-organization
- extreme environments
- electronics and photonics
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