Atomistic simulation study of the helium effects on the deformation behavior in nickel bicrystals

Experimental and theoretical studies have shown that helium impurities in nickel tend to precipitate into nano-sized bubbles. The formation of helium bubbles has been found to have detrimental effects on the mechanical properties of nickel and its alloys. However, the mechanisms that lead to the observed helium-induced embrittlement are still unclear. In the present work, we perform molecular dynamics simulations to study helium effects on the …