• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.5C no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2005

We observed that optical properties of silicon changed under high dose electron irradiation at 250 keV. Our experimental results revealed that the optical transmission through a silicon wafer is significantly increased by electron irradiation. Transmission increase by the change in the absorption coefficient is explained through an analogy with amorphous silicon. Moreover, solar cell open-circuit voltages indicated that defects were generated by electron irradiation, and that the defects responded to annealing. Our results demonstrated that the optical properties of silicon can be controlled by a combination of electron irradiation and hydrogen annealing.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.158-168
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• 2021

Austenitic 316 stainless steel was irradiated with protons accelerated by an energy of 2 MeV at 360 ℃, the various defects induced by this proton irradiation were characterized with microscopic equipment. In our observations irradiation defects such as dislocations and micro-voids were clearly revealed. The typical irradiation defects observed differed according to depth, indicating the evolution of irradiation defects follows the characteristics of radiation damage profiles that depend on depth. Surface oxidation tests were conducted under the simulated primary water conditions of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) to understand the role irradiation defects play in surface oxidation behavior and also to investigate the resultant irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) susceptibility that occurs after exposure to PWR primary water. We found that Cr and Fe became depleted while Ni was enriched at the grain boundary beneath the surface oxidation layer both in the non-irradiated and proton-irradiated specimens. However, the degree of Cr/Fe depletion and Ni enrichment was much higher in the proton-irradiated sample than in the non-irradiated one owing to radiation-induced segregation and the irradiation defects. The microstructural and microchemical changes induced by proton irradiation all appear to significantly increase the susceptibility of austenitic 316 stainless steel to IASCC.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.769-775
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• 2019

The tensile strength of irradiated 3C-SiC, SiC with artificial point defects, SiC with symmetric tilt grain boundaries (GBs), irradiated SiC with GBs are investigated using molecular dynamics simulations at 300 K. For an irradiated SiC sample, the tensile strength decreases with the increase of irradiation dose. The Young's modulus decreases with the increase of irradiation dose which agrees well with experiment and simulation data. For artificial point defects, the designed point defects dramatically decrease the tensile strength of SiC at low concentration. Among the point defects studied in this work, the vacancies drop the strength the most seriously. SiC symmetric tilt GBs decrease the tensile strength of pure SiC. Under irradiated condition, the tensile strengths of all SiC samples with grain boundaries decrease and converge to certain value because the structures become amorphous and the grain boundaries disappear after high dose irradiation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.114-122
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• 2024

Irradiation-induced defects and the precipitates in the wrapper material of the Indian Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), SS 316 are analyzed using the synchrotron source-based Angle Dispersive X-Ray Diffraction (ADXRD) technique with X-rays of energy 17.185 keV (wavelength ~0.72146 Å). The differences and similarities in the high displacement damage samples as a function of dpa (displacement per atom) and dpa rate in the range of 2.9 × 10^-7- 9 × 10^-7 dpa/s are studied. Ferrite and M₂₃C₆ are commonly observed in the present set of high displacement damage 40-74 dpa SS 316 samples irradiated at temperatures in the range of 400-483 ℃. Also, the dislocation density has increased as a function of the irradiation dose. The X-ray diffraction peak profile parameters quantified such as peak shift and asymmetry show that the irradiation-induced defects are sensitive to the dpa rate-irradiation temperature combinations. The increase in yield strength as a function of displacement damage is also correlated to the dislocation density.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.991-996
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• 2022

Microstructures of monolithic high purity SiC and SiC with sintering additives after neutron irradiation to a fluence of 2.0-2.5 × 10²⁴ n/m² (E > 0.1 MeV) at 333-363 K and after post-irradiation annealing up to 1673 K were observed using a transmission electron microscopy. Results showed that no black spot defects or dislocation loops in SiC grains were found after the neutron irradiation for all of the specimens owing to the moderate fluence at low irradiation temperature. Thus, it is confirmed that these specimens were swelled mostly by the formation of point defects. Black spots and small dislocation loops were discovered only after the annealing process in PureBeta-SiC and CVD-SiC, where the swelling almost diminished. Anomalous-shaped YAG grains were found in SiC ceramics containing sintering additives. These grains contained dense black spots defects and might lose crystallinity after the neutron irradiation, while these defects may annihilate by recrystallization during annealing up to 1673 K. Amorphous grain boundary phase was also presented in this ceramic, and a large part of it was crystallized through post-irradiation annealing and could affect their recovery behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.732-736
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• 2009

Protons are irradiated into SOl wafers under total dose of 100 krad, 500 krad, 1 Mrad and 2 Mrad to analyze the irradiation effect. The electrical properties are analyzed by pseudo MOSFET technology after proton irradiation. The wafers are annealed to stabilize generated defects in a nitrogen atmosphere at $300^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour because proton irradiation induces a lot of unstable defects in the surface silicon film. Both negative and positive turn-on voltages are shifted to negative direction after the irradiation. The more proton total dose, the more turn on voltage shifts. It means that positive oxide trap charge is generated in the buried oxide(BOX). The minority carrier lifetime which is analyzed by the drain current transient characteristics decreases with the increase of proton total dose. The proton irradiation makes crystal defects in the silicon film, and consequently, the crystal defects reduce the carrier lifetime and mobility. As these results, it can be concluded that pseudo MOSFET is a useful technology for the analysis of irradiated SOI wafer.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.124-130
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• 2023

Background: When bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) are used as switches, their switching characteristics can be deteriorated because the recombination time of the minority carriers is long during turn-off transient. When BJTs operate as low frequency switches, the power dissipation in the on-state is large. However, when BJTs operate as high frequency switches, the power dissipation during switching transients increases rapidly. Materials and Methods: When silicon (Si) BJTs are irradiated by fast neutrons, defects occur in the Si bulk, shortening the lifetime of the minority carriers. Fast neutron irradiation mainly creates displacement damage in the Si bulk rather than a total ionization dose effect. Defects caused by fast neutron irradiation shorten the lifetime of minority carriers of BJTs. Furthermore, these defects change the switching characteristics of BJTs. Results and Discussion: In this study, experimental results on the switching characteristics of a pnp Si BJT before and after fast neutron irradiation are presented. The results show that the switching characteristics are improved by fast neutron irradiation, but power dissipation in the on-state is large when the fast neutrons are irradiated excessively. Conclusion: The switching characteristics of a pnp Si BJT were improved by fast neutron irradiation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2783-2791
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• 2022

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to predict the behavior of graphite atoms under neutron irradiation using large-scale atomic/molecular massively parallel simulator (LAMMPS) package with adaptive intermolecular reactive empirical bond order (AIREBOM) potential. Defect structures of graphite were compared with results from previous studies by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The quantitative relation between primary knock-on atom (PKA) energy and irradiation damage on graphite was calculated. and the effect of PKA direction on the amount of defects is estimated by counting displaced atoms. Defects are classified into four groups: structural defects, energy defects, vacancies, and near-defect structures, where a structural defect is further subdivided into six types by decision tree method which is one of the supervised machine learning techniques.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.08a
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• pp.19-19
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• 2008

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1749-1755
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• 2020

In present study, TEM foils of Ni-Mo-Cr alloy were directly irradiated with 30 keV Ar ions to allow direct characterization. The defects evolution and element segregation after irradiation were investigated by TEM and HAADF-EDS linear scanning. At low irradiation doses (1.38 and 2.76 dpa), black dots were formed and grew with increasing dose. Complicated defects including peas-shaped dislocation loops, polygon dislocation networks and large loops were visible in samples irradiated to high doses (13.8 and 27.6 dpa). Meanwhile, dislocation channels appeared, in which defects were swept out. Significant Mo depletions at dislocation lines and grain boundaries were induced by irradiation due to large misfits between Mo-Ni atoms and high content of Mo.