Collaborative Research: Bridging the atomic scale and the mesoscale in the characterization of defect production and evolution in high entropy alloys

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NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYDeveloping high strength materials that can withstand significant amounts of radiation and deformation are critical to advance many technical applications, including efficient nuclear energy production and space exploration. High entropy alloys (HEAs) are emerging as promising high strength and radiation-resistant materials as HEAs contain a mix of many elements that disrupt the chemical ordering. The focus of this research is to gain fundamental understanding at the atomic level on how the complexity of chemical disorder interferes with the formation and evolution of undesirable defects that weakens the material. To gain these insights, state of the art analytical and imaging techniques will be used to reveal how an atomic sized defect in the material evolves and how the chemical disorder interferes and halts this undesirable process. Such insights are needed to develop the optimal alloys with high radiation resistance, high strength and high stability that would not only enable new advanced power generating technologies with high efficiency and low or zero carbon emission but more generally, could transform many technical fields related to energy and space. Students working on the project will develop in-depth understanding on chemistry and physics of materials and defects in solids and gain experience in important techniques in material science. International student exchange and national internship opportunities are offered to the graduate students involved in the project. A wide range of research opportunities and outreach activities are provided to undergraduates and high school students throughout the period of the project where participation of underrepresented groups are actively encouraged. TECHNICAL SUMMARYHigh entropy alloys (HEAs) are emerging as an outstanding class of materials due to their excellent mechanical properties and high radiation tolerance as a result of their unique electronic structure. Chemical disorder and compositional fluctuations in these alloys have large effects on energy dissipation and response to irradiation. While previous transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and other studies showed that damage accumulation was suppressed by increasing chemical disorder, they could not reveal vacancy clusters below 2 nm leaving critical gap in understanding defect formation and buildup in these alloys. The proposed research aims to experimentally monitor defect formation on atomistic scale and their buildup to large clusters and voids by combining in-situ and ex-situ positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) with in-situ and ex-situ TEM to capture isolated vacancies, small vacancy clusters, larger clusters and voids, thus bridge the gap between the atomic scale and mesoscale characterization of radiation induced defects in HEAs. The use of In-situ PAS and In-situ TEM measurements both coupled with ion irradiation offers a picture of the defect dynamics including production, annihilation and evolution, on atomic scale (for PAS) and mesoscale (for TEM). The proposed research is expected to reveal the effects of chemical disorder on defect formation, migration and evolution in a radiation environment and reveal the damage and annealing mechanisms in Single -Phase Concentrated Solid Solution alloys (SP-CSAs) and HEAs through the study of defect production from collision cascades on an atomic and mesoscale level in alloys with increasing chemical complexity from one to five constituents.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.