Journal of Materials Research and Technology (May 2024)

Structural modification mechanism of Fe-based amorphous alloys by high-energy particle irradiation

  • W. Qin,
  • J.L. Liang,
  • D. Gu,
  • T.L. Li,
  • W.L. Zhu,
  • J.A. Szpunar

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 30
pp. 1547 – 1552

Abstract

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High-energy particle irradiation-induced crystallization technology presents remarkable potential for precise nanostructure design. However, the fundamental mechanism behind this process remains a long-standing unsolved puzzle. In this paper, we used a high-energy electron beam as the irradiation source and amorphous Fe85B15 alloy as a model system to investigate the behavior of irradiation-induced structural changes. Our experimental results show that the nucleation barrier in irradiation-induced crystallization ranges from 0.5 to 0.8 eV, depending on the temperature, much smaller than that observed in thermal-induced crystallization. Additionally, the nucleation entropy observed is −1.60 × 10−3 eV/K, and the entropic contribution to the nucleation barrier dominates over the enthalpic contribution. This paper provides compelling experimental evidence demonstrating that nucleation in irradiation-induced crystallization is not a thermally activated effect; instead, it is a process in which the amorphous state progresses through a series of intermediate short-range ordering configurations toward a crystalline state with the assistance of irradiation-induced atomic rearrangement.

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