Analysis of Radiation Damage in Light Water Reactors: Comparison of Cluster Analysis Methods for the Analysis of Atom Probe Data

作者：Hyde Jonathan M; DaCosta Gerald; Hatzoglou Constantinos; Weekes Hannah; Radiguet Bertrand; Styman Paul D^*; Vurpillot Francois; Pareige Cristelle; Etienne Auriane; Bonny Giovanni; Castin Nicolas; Malerba Lorenzo; Pareige Philippe

来源：Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2017, 23(2): 366-375.

DOI：10.1017/S1431927616012678

• atom probe field ion microscopy
• statistical analysis
• solute clustering

Irradiation of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels causes the formation of nanoscale microstructural features (termed radiation damage), which affect the mechanical properties of the vessel. A key tool for characterizing these nanoscale features is atom probe tomography (APT), due to its high spatial resolution and the ability to identify different chemical species in three dimensions. Microstructural observations using APT can underpin development of a mechanistic understanding of defect formation. However, with atom probe analyses there are currently multiple methods for analyzing the data. This can result in inconsistencies between results obtained from different researchers and unnecessary scatter when combining data from multiple sources. This makes interpretation of results more complex and calibration of radiation damage models challenging. In this work simulations of a range of different microstructures are used to directly compare different cluster analysis algorithms and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

• 出版日期2017-4