Nano-yttria in oxide dispersion strengthened tungsten under alpha particle irradation

Abstract

Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys, particularly steels and tungsten with yttria nanoparticles, have been proved to be a new class of high-strength nuclear material. We developed a simple model of an ODS tungsten alloy to study the primary damage produced by alpha particle irradiation on it. We show that the size of yttria nanoparticles embedded in a tungsten matrix is an important quantity to take into account under alpha particle irradiation. We explain the observed behaviors and we establish a critical scale parameter for the model we use, making a comparison with bulk tungsten.