Phase transition of pure zirconia under irradiation: A textbook example

David Simeone (1) , Gianguido Baldinozzi (2) , D. Gosset (1) , S. Le Caer (3)

1 LA2M - Laboratoire d'Analyse Microstructurale des Matériaux
2 SPMS - Laboratoire Structures, Propriétés et Modélisation des solides
3 LCF - URA 331 - Laboratoire Claude Fréjacques

One of the most important goals in ceramic and materials science is to be able to design materials with specific properties. Irradiation seems to be a powerful tool for the design of advanced ceramics because of its ability to modify over different scales the microstructure of solids. Nowadays, it is clearly proved that irradiation induces order-disorder phase transitions in metallic alloys and in some ceramics. In this paper, we show that a displacive phase transition can also be induced by irradiation. Based on many experimental facts, a microscopic model is proposed to explain the displacive phase transition observed in this material after irradiation. Defects, produced in the oxygen sublattice, induce important strain fields on a nanometric scale. This strain field can be handled as a secondary order parameter within the Landau theory approach, leading to a decrease of the phase transition temperature and thus quenching the high temperature tetragonal phase. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mots clés: irradiation effect; phase transition; point defects

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]; Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]

David Simeone, Gianguido Baldinozzi, D. Gosset, S. Le Caer. Phase transition of pure zirconia under irradiation: A textbook example. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2006, 250 (1-2), pp.95-100. ⟨10.1016/j.nimb.2006.04.092⟩. ⟨hal-00115271⟩