Energy-beam processing studies on Ta/U and Ir/Ta systems. [Laser-and electron-beam melting]

Films of Ta metal on uranium and of Ir metal on tantalum have been irradiated and melted by pulses from Q-switched Ruby and frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers to investigate the nature of the resulting mixtures in light of the very different binary-phase diagrams of the two systems. In addition, a two-phase Ir-Ta alloy has been surface-processed with CW CO/sub 2/-laser radiation and with an electron beam in order to study microstructure refinement and test the advantage of using alloys as opposed to film-on-substrate combinations for the development of claddings.