Radiation Interaction with Materials (neutrons, electrons, particles, laser and photons)

Researcher: Prof. Nasr Ghoniem


Radiation interaction with materials results in the generation of copious amounts of defects. Some of these defects “anneal-out,” as a self-healing process. However, a fraction is usually trapped, forming harmful structures in the material, such as gas bubbles or unwanted brittle phases. Research in Ghoniem’s lab addresses how and where radiation deposits its energy and comes to rest in the material. Specialized computer simulation tools (Monte Carlo, Phase Field, and Rate Theory) are developed to describe the formation of the harmful effects of radiation in structural materials, as shown below.

Figure 1: Microengineered tungsten foam that has been developed to be resilient to plasma ion effects on tungsten.

Figure 2: Tungsten “fuzz” forms on surfaces bombarded with low energy helium plasma ions.

Figure 3: Nano-structures formed in helium ion bombarded tungsten surfaces.

 UCLA Samueli Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering