Radiation Effects in Ceramics: Ceramics dislike strain, so they react to adapt
Résumé
Radiation effects in oxides: as in metal alloys the accumulation of damage (fluence dependent) and the overlap of cascades (flux dependent) may produce substantial changes in the structure and microstructure. But: - Is radiation damage actually able to produce new phases not present in the P-T phase diagram or only "natural" polymorphs are observed? - Can we measure these modifications in an efficient way in ion irradiated samples? Examples illustrating material response to fluence dependent effects - ZrO2 system - UO2+x system