Microstructural evolution in ZrCu metallic glass under neutron irradiation

YF Dong and MF Li and B Malomo and L Yang, COMPUTATIONAL MATERIALS SCIENCE, 188, 110183 (2021).

DOI: 10.1016/j.commatsci.2020.110183

A detailed numerical investigation has been conducted on the microstructural evolution of a Zr2Cu metallic glass (MG) model under neutron irradiation by extensive molecular dynamics simulations. It was discovered that at the melted zone of the irradiated MG model, an irradiation-induced cascades region was prominent, where there exists a significant atomic-to-cluster structural changes in terms of the coordination numbers, atomic packing efficiency, cluster distribution and regularity. These features effectively were responsible for the transformation of disordered local structures from a densely-packed to a loosely-packed arrangement and largely, the underlying chaos within the structure. Eventually, it was highly remarkable to discover that when the model was fully relaxed at 20 ns, the irradiation-induced structural changes completely vanished and the entire structure was effectively and fully self-recovered. The results of this study will potentially facilitate the development of advanced materials with high irradiation resistance.

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