Grain boundaries (GBs) are considered sinks where mobile defects are attracted and annihilated thereby hampering irradiation damage accumulation. Nanocrystalline (NC) metals characteristically have greater densities of GBs relative to their coarse-grained counterparts hence they are postulated to provide enhanced resistance to irradiation damage.

The use of alloying as a means to impart synergistic properties such as corrosion resistance, increased toughness, or improved conductivity is well studied, yet the cooperative effects of solute addition and grain size in the nano-regime is not well understood. In this study, a combination of in situ ion irradiation, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and automated crystal orientation mapping (ACOM) on model Ni, NiCr, Fe, and FeCr NC thin-films are used to provide experimental evidence that grain size and irradiation induced defect morphology (defect density and size) are not directly correlated due to defect agglomeration, annihilation at sinks, and saturation, while the addition of solute impedes defect mobility, altering the final damage state.

晶界（GBs）被认为是吸收和消除活动缺陷的汇点，从而阻碍了辐射损伤的积累。纳米晶（NC）金属的特征是相对于其粗粒度对应物具有更大的GB密度，因此推测它们可提供增强的抗辐射损伤能力。

充分研究了合金化作为赋予协同性能的手段，例如耐腐蚀性，增加的韧性或改善的导电性，但是在纳米体系中溶质添加和晶粒尺寸的协同作用尚不为人所知。在这项研究中，结合使用原位离子辐照，透射电子显微镜（TEM）和Ni，NiCr，Fe和FeCr模型NC薄膜上的自动晶体取向映射（ACOM）来提供实验证据，证明晶粒尺寸由于缺陷团聚，凹陷处的density灭和饱和，与辐射诱导的缺陷形态（缺陷密度和大小）没有直接相关，而溶质的添加会阻碍缺陷迁移率，从而改变最终的损伤状态。