4. SummaryIn the present study, bot

4. Summary
In the present study, both cross-sectional and bulk specimens of
irradiated CW 316 SS has been investigated at room temperature
with 7 MeV Xe26+ ions by TEM, XRD and nanoindentation. The
ion doses were calculated to be 0.62 and 3.7 dpa. A high number
density of nano-sized dislocation loops were found in irradiated
cross-sectional specimens. The number density (several
1022 m3) shows no evolution with ion dose, while the mean diameter
increased slightly from 5 to 7 nm as dose increased from 0.62
to 3.7 dpa. The formation of these dislocation loops takes place at
the core of the cascade damage region. The irradiated bulk specimens,
XRD analyses revealed that the lattice distortion, which
was considered to be due to the presence of irradiation induced
defects. Moreover, nanoindentation results indicated that the
hardening of CW 316 SS after ion irradiation. The combined nanoindentation
results and TEM observations indicated that the radiation-
induced microstructural evolution can be basically
responsible for the hardening of CW 316 SS after Xenon ion
irradiation.