Atomistic investigation of the interaction between an edge dislocation and 1/2<111> interstitial dislocation loops in irradiated tungsten

By impeding dislocation motion, the irradiation-induced dislocation loops cause irradiation hardening and further embrittlement of plasma-facing tungsten in fusion reactors, leading to its performance degradation. But fundamental questions regarding the mechanisms remain to be clarified and predictive model for loop hardening remains to be built. In this paper, interactions between gliding edge dislocations and interstitial dislocation loops (with Burger vector b(L) = 1/2 <111>) are studied using atomistic simulations. The influences of b(L) orientations, dislocation-loop intersection positions, loop sizes, and loading conditions (temperature and strain rate) on the interactions are systematically calculated and analyzed. Results show a large variety of interaction mechanisms, depending mainly on the relative orientations of b(L) to dislocation slip plane, while slightly affected by loading conditions. Although loops with b(L) parallel to the plane can be easily swept away by gliding dislocations, loops with b(L) inclined to dislocation slip plane can strongly pin the gliding dislocation by forming a sessile < 100 > segment, which would bend the dislocation line into a screw dipole. Thus, high stress is required for the dislocation line to break away from the inclined loops by cross-slip of each individual arm of the screw dipole coupled with glide of the < 100 > segment. On the other hand, increasing temperature and/or decreasing strain rate hardly change the above mechanisms, but monotonically reduce the obstruction by these loops. Simplifying the complex motion of the edge dislocation pinned by the inclined loops as a thermally-activated process of a 1/2[111] edge dislocation overcoming barriers, a hardening model for the inclined loops is proposed. This model well describes the dependence of loop strength on loop sizes, temperatures and strain rates. The model is then applied to predict irradiation hardening at experimental strain rates, and it shows reasonable agreement with experimental results.