Images reveal effects of radiation on magnesium

According to a statement, the technique could give researchers new insights into how radiation weakens the integrity of radiation-tolerant materials, such as those used in space exploration or nuclear energy.

‘We used high-resolution transmission electron microscopy [HRTEM] to simultaneously irradiate the magnesium and collect images of the material at the atomic scale,’ said Weizong Xu, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the work. ‘It is a new way to use an existing technology, and it allowed us to see voids forming and expanding in the material.

‘Prior to this, we knew radiation could cause voids that weaken the material, but we didn’t know how the voids formed,’ Xu said. Voids are physical gaps in materials that begin at the atomic level and can cause a material to swell or crack.

The researchers looked at magnesium for two reasons: first, magnesium’s atoms arrange themselves into tightly packed layers in a hexagonal structure.