Irradiation-induced grain growth in nanocrystalline reduced activation ferrite/martensite steel

In this work, we investigate the microstructure evolution of surface-nanocrystallized reduced activation ferrite/martensite steels upon high-dose helium ion irradiation (24.3 dpa). We report a significant irradiation-induced grain growth in the irradiated buried layer at a depth of 300-500 nm, rather than at the peak damage region (at a depth of ∼840 nm). This phenomenon can be explained by the thermal spike model: minimization of the grain boundary (GB) curvature resulting from atomic diffusion in the cascade center near GBs.