Dimensional changes and creep of glassy carbon under proton irradiation Original Research Article

Glassy carbon specimens of 0.5 mm thickness were irradiated with 9.2 MeV protons under tensile stresses from 5 to 25 M Pa to maximum doses of about 4 × 1023 m−2 at temperatures of 220 and 420 °C, respectively. Length measurements under irradiation at low stresses showed transient compaction, the amount of which depended on initial specimen density. Uniaxial tensile stresses caused irradiation creep with a creep compliance ϵσ · ƒt of ≈ 1 × 10−33 Pa−1 m2, possibly slightly decreasing with increasing temperature or with decreasing density. Compaction rate and irradiation creep rate per atomic displacement rate of glassy carbon under proton irradiation are larger by at least one order of magnitude than the respective values of graphite and pyrocarbon under neutron irradiation.