Structural Changes in Alloys of the Al–Cu–Mg System Under Ion Bombardment and Shock-Wave Loading

Abstract

To confirm the hypothesis on the shock-wave nature of long-range effects upon corpuscular irradiation of condensed media presumably caused by emission and propagation of post-cascade shock waves, comparative experiments on ion beam modification and mechanical shock-wave loading of specimens of VD1 and D16 alloys of the Al–Cu–Mg system are performed. Direct analogy between the processes of microstructural change of cold-deformed VD1 and D16 alloys under mechanical shock loading and irradiation by beams of accelerated Ar⁺ ions (E = 20–40 keV) with low fluences (10¹⁵–10¹⁶ cm^–2) is established. This demonstrates the important role of the dynamic long-range effects that have not yet been considered in classical radiation physics of solids.