Characterization of Irradiated Microstructure by X-Ray Diffraction Line Profile Analysis

Zirconium-based alloys have been irradiated with 11 and 15 MeV proton and 116 MeV oxygen ions at different doses. The changes in the microstructure have been studied for the ion-irradiated alloys as a function of dose using X-ray diffraction line profile analysis (XRDLPA) based on the whole powder pattern fitting technique. It was observed that the microstructural parameters such as domain size, microstrain within the domain, and dislocation density did not change significantly with the increase in dose for proton-irradiated samples. A clear change was noticed in these microstructural parameters as a function of dose for oxygen-irradiated samples. There was a drastic decrease in domain size at a dose of 1 × 1017 O5+/m2, but these values reached a plateau with increasing dose. The values of microstrain and dislocation density increased significantly with the dose of irradiation.