Investigation of the nucleation mechanism of athermal defect clusters in materials during irradiation

材料在辐照过程中点缺陷及其团簇的形成是裂变和聚变反应堆中材料降解的关键问题之一。了解团簇形成的机理对进一步开发抗辐照材料具有重要意义。在本研究中，对缺陷团簇的成核和生长过程进行了理论研究，为我们提供了缺陷团簇形成的剂量-速率依赖关系。这些发现将有助于建立辐照相关规则，该规则是根据现有辐照设施中已经获得的材料数据库预测裂变和聚变反应堆实际辐照环境中材料降解行为所必需的。

The formation of point defects and their clusters in materials during irradiation is one of key issues for material's degradation in fission and fusion reactors. To understand the mechanism of cluster formation is important for further development of irradiation-resistant materials. In the present study, theoretical investigation was done to model the nucleation and growth process of defect clusters, which provides us the dose-rate dependence of defect cluster formation. These findings obtained here will be useful for establishment of the irradiation correlation rule that is required to predict materials degradation behavior in the realistic irradiation environments of fission and fusion reactors from the material's database already obtained at the existing irradiation facilities.