Damages induced by heavy ions in titanium silicon carbide: effects of nuclear and electronic interactions at room temperature

Jean-Christophe Nappé (1, 2, 3) , Philippe Grosseau (1, 2, 3) , F. Audubert (4) , Bernard Guilhot (1, 2, 3, 5) , Michel Beauvy (4) , Mourad Benabdesselam (6) , Isabelle Monnet (7)

1 SPIN-ENSMSE - Centre Sciences des Processus Industriels et Naturels
2 P2MC-ENSMSE - Département Poudres et Matériaux Multi-Composants
3 LPMG-EMSE - Laboratoire des Procédés en Milieux Granulaires
4 LTEC - Laboratoire des Technologies d'Elaboration des Combustibles
5 CIS-ENSMSE - Centre Ingénierie et Santé
6 LPMC - Laboratoire de physique de la matière condensée
7 CIRIL - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Ions Lasers

Thanks to their refractoriness, carbides are sensed as fuel coating for the IVth generation of reactors. Among those studied, the Ti3SiC2 ternary compound can be distinguished for its noteworthy mechanical properties: the nanolamellar structure imparts to this material some softness as well as better toughness than other classical carbides such as SiC or TiC. However, under irradiation, its behaviour is still unknown. In order to understand this behaviour, specimens were irradiated with heavy ions of different energies, then characterised. The choice of energies used allowed separation of the effects of nuclear interactions from those of electronic ones.

Mots clés: irradiation; heavy ions; nuclear collisions; electronic interactions; Ti3SiC2

Domaines: Génie des procédés; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Jean-Christophe Nappé, Philippe Grosseau, F. Audubert, Bernard Guilhot, Michel Beauvy, et al.. Damages induced by heavy ions in titanium silicon carbide: effects of nuclear and electronic interactions at room temperature. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2009, 385 (2), pp.304-307. ⟨10.1016/j.jnucmat.2008.12.018⟩. ⟨hal-00408936⟩