Helium interactions with (Y, Ti, O) nanoclusters in bcc Fe

Nanometer size (Y, Ti, O) clusters in nanostructured ferritic/martensitic Fe-Cr alloys can act as sinks for the transmutation product helium. In this manner irradiation swelling can be retarded significantly. Many details of He storage in or near the clusters are still not understood. In this work interactions of He with (Y, Ti, O) clusters in bcc Fe are investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Four different cluster structures studied in our previous work [1] are considered: Cage-type clusters with (i) 6 O atoms, 9 vacancies (v) and 6 Y atoms, and (ii) with 7 O, 9 v, 3 Y, and 3 Ti, as well as clusters with O in the center containing (iii) 6 O, 9 v, 6 Y, and (iv) 7 O, 9 v, 3 Y, 3 Ti. It is found that the most stable position of He is in the center of the cluster, followed by the interfacial substitutional site and other interstitial positions between metal or oxygen atoms, and sites away from the cluster. This shows the He trapping may be nearly irrespective of cluster morphology and mainly depend on cluster composition. Adding a second He atom to the cluster structure is investigated for selected cases. Furthermore, barriers for possible jumps between different sites at the rim of the cluster and the center are determined. First results show that these barriers are higher if the cluster contains Ti and that there is a strong dependence on the particular position at the rim. For the discussion of the results also the DFT data obtained from studies on the interaction of He with single O, Y, and Ti atoms as well as with a single vacancy are used.

[1] Vallinayagam et.al. Investigation of structural models for O-Y and O-Y-Ti clusters in bcc Fe: A DFT study J. Phys.: Condens. Matter (2018) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aaf9cd