Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Dislocation loops are critical defects inducing detrimental effects like embrittlement and swelling in materials under irradiation. Distinguishing their nature (interstitial- or vacancy-type) is a long-standing challenge with great implications for understanding radiation damage. Here, we demonstrate that the morphology of radiation-induced Frank loops can unveil their nature in face-centered cubic (fcc) structure: Circular loops are interstitial-type in all fcc materials, while segmented loops are vacancy-type in high stacking fault energy (SFE) alloys but varied-type in low SFE and high-entropy alloys. The polygonal shape is attributed to the dissociation of an a0/3<111> dislocation into an a0/6<112> Shockley partial and an a0/6<110> stair-rod dislocation. The dissociation of vacancy loops is energetically favorable, whereas interstitial loops require external stimuli to promote dislocation propagation. This morphology-nature correlation not only highlights the asymmetry of vacancy/interstitial loops but also offers an efficient way to distinguish loop nature for a wide range of materials.