Effects of primary recoil energy on the production rate of mobile defects during elevated temperature irradiation

Radiation-induced segregation rates in a Ni-12.7 at% Si alloy have been measured as a function of temperature using ions of various masses and energies. An analysis of the segregation kinetics using a simple analytical model yielded the relative efficiency of each of the ions for producing mobile defects directly from ratios of their measured segregation rates. In this paper, we also show that the relative efficiencies can also be determined from measured shifts in the peak segregation temperature. Both methods yield a strong decrease in efficiency with increasing ion mass. The reduction in efficiency for the heavier ions was found to be significantly larger than that measured at very low temperatures by resistivity techniques. The latter are often used as a basis for correlating damage structures produced at elevated temperatures. Differences between the low and high temperature measurements indicate that relative efficiencies determined from segregation measurements are more reliable for correlating microstructural changes that are produced in different irradiation environments at high temperatures.