Abstract

This presentation highlights some of the new capabilities and research directions that have been developed at Sandia National Laboratories’ new Ion Beam Lab to investigate the fundamental responses of various materials under extreme environments. This will highlight several of the initial studies utilizing the new in situ ion irradiation TEM to understand the microstructural evolution that results from displacement damage in a variety of structural metals, as well as the use of small scale mechanical testing to rapidly screen potential generation IV cladding materials. In addition to displacement damage, corrosion is a substantial concern in many key aspects of the nuclear industry. Initial results and research currently undertaken to investigate the fundamentals of corrosion mechanisms both in high purity metals and in dry storage containers via in-situ TEM liquid and gas phase experiments will be demonstrated. Finally, this presentation will conclude with recent work comparing the photoluminescence, cathodoluminescence, and ion beam induced luminescence of advanced radiation detectors. Through the use of these various ion beam and TEM techniques, greater insight into the microstructural evolution associated with the harsh radiation environments may be achieved and used for the development of predictive models and rapid material screening.

This work was partially funded by the Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. 

Biography

Khalid Hattar is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff in the Radiation-Solids Interaction group at Sandia National Laboratories.  He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2003, and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2009.  He specializes in determining the property-microstructure relationship for a variety of structural, electrical, and optical materials through in-situ TEM in various extreme environments.