Crossover from disordered to core-shell structures of nano-oxide Y2O3 dispersed particles in Fe

MP Higgins and CY Lu and Z Lu and L Shao and LM Wang and F Gao, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 109, 031911 (2016).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4959776

Molecular dynamic simulations of Y2O3 in bcc Fe and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations were used to understand the structure of Y2O3 nano-clusters in an oxide dispersion strengthened steel matrix. The study showed that Y2O3 nano-clusters below 2 nm were completely disordered. Y2O3 nano-clusters above 2 nm, however, form a core-shell structure, with a shell thickness of 0.5-0.7 nm that is independent of nano-cluster size. Y2O3 nano-clusters were surrounded by off-lattice Fe atoms, further increasing the stability of these nano- clusters. TEM was used to corroborate our simulation results and showed a crossover from a disordered nano-cluster to a core-shell structure. Published by AIP Publishing.

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