Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1007/s10853-026-12914-6

Publication Title

Journal of Materials Science

Volume

Advance online publication

Pages

19 pp.

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of electron beam (e-beam) irradiation on the mechanical and structural properties of eight bulk metallic samples, comprising both polycrystalline (PC) and single-crystalline (SC) forms of Ni, Cr, V, and Ti. These metals were evaluated as potential candidates for beam exit windows in high-power (MW-class) particle accelerators. The primary objective is to identify metals capable of withstanding the conditions of high-power/MW-class e-beam accelerators and serve effectively as exit windows. Selection criteria were based on each metal’s intrinsic properties, power dissipation capability, and irradiation-induced changes in mechanical behavior, including hardness, elastic modulus, and defect density. Comprehensive characterization was conducted using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and nanoindentation, performed both before and after exposure to a ~ 66 kGy dose from a 10 MeV e-beam accelerator. Results revealed that e-beam irradiation induced hardening in PC Ni, whereas PC Ti, commonly used in beam exit windows, exhibited softening. The observed softening in PC Ti is attributed to grain coarsening, elongation, and the formation of twins and twin boundaries, in contrast to the smaller, compressed grains in the pristine (Pr) PC Ti samples, consistent with the Hall–Petch relationship. The stresses due to twinning are small and insignificant in influencing the overall hardening of the PC Ti irradiated sample when compared to the stresses due to the dislocation density. Conversely, SC Ti samples exhibited irradiation-induced hardening. The SC Ti irradiated samples developed additional irradiation-induced modifications in crystallographic texture of (100), (101), (110), (200), (112), (004), and (211) as evidenced from the XRD results, which could probably explain the hardening effect that is caused by irradiation.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder

Data Availability

Article states: "The data supporting this study's findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."

Original Publication Citation

Elmustafa, A. A., Sultana, N. A., Al-Allaq, A. H., Ojha, M., Mohammed, Y. S., Vennekate, J., & Baumgart, H. (2026). Electron beam irradiation effects on bulk metals: a comparative study of polycrystalline versus single-crystalline structures. Journal of Materials Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-026-12914-6

ORCID

0000-0001-5865-6035 (Elmustafa), 0000-0002-0415-2795 (Al-Allaq), 0000-0002-8454-7104 (Ojha), 0000-0001-8272-2151 (Baumgart)

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