An Introduction to Radiation Damage in Metallic Materials

Radiation consists of energetic particles or waves that are emitted from a source and travel through space or any other medium, such as high energy ions, neutrons, electrons, protons, electromagnetic waves such as light, gamma rays, X-rays, etc. We wish to understand the effect of radiation on the microstructure, and, consequently, the mechanical properties of a material. Towards this end, the present chapter gives a survey of the nature of radiation induced damage at the atomic and microscopic scale, the processes involved in the evolution of radiation damage, the manifestation of damage in various forms, the various methods of estimating or calculating the expected damage, and the techniques for characterization of radiation damage in materials, focussing on metals and metallic alloys.