NOMATEN ONLINE-SEMINAR November 24: Concepts and tools for the design of radiation-resistant alloys from atomic scale data
NOMATEN Online Seminar
Location: gotomeeting room - https://meet.goto.com/NCBJmeetings/nomaten-seminar
Seminar date: November 24th, 2026, 1:00 PM (CEST)
Concepts and tools for the design of radiation-resistant alloys from atomic scale data
Thomas SCHULER
CEA Saclay, Section of Physical Metallurgy
Abstract:
Irradiation creates sustained fluxes of point defects (vacancies, self-interstitials) in solids, leading to various kinetic phenomena: radiation-enhanced diffusion (RED), radiation-induced segregation (RIS), and radiation-induced precipitation (RIP). These mechanisms stem from the interaction of point defects with solute elements and impurities contained in the alloy. Therefore, the spatial distribution of atoms is modified under irradiation, and these microstructural changes must be predicted in order to assess the lifetime of materials in a nuclear environment. Unveiling these mechanisms requires an atomic-scale study to capture the details of the solute–point defect interactions and incorporate them into a thermo-kinetic model of the alloy.
This presentation is divided into three parts. First, I will show examples of our recent work on the calculation of phase diagrams from random sampling of substitution energies. Second, I will present the KineCluE code and examples of the use of our kinetic cluster expansion framework to account for detailed kinetic effects between solutes and point defects. Lastly, I will introduce the concept of radiation-resistant solid solutions, where we show that small solute additions can increase recombination between point defects and therefore reduce irradiation effects.
Bio:
Thomas SCHULER holds a PhD in materials science from University Paris Sud (2015). He is a researcher in the Section of Physical Metallurgy at CEA Saclay (Energy Division, Department of Materials and Physico-Chemical Research for Low-Carbon Energy), where he is responsible for developing thermodynamic and kinetic codes, particularly the KineCluE code, which has been under development since 2018. This code aims to compute transport coefficients from atomic-scale data. Recently, much of his work has focused on developing statistical methods to compute phase diagrams from atomic-scale data, including secondary-phase precipitation triggered by irradiation effects. Thomas Schuler has co-authored 33 publications.
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