Evolution of vacancy defects in heavy ion irradiated tungsten exposed to helium plasma

Abstract

Evolution of vacancy-type defects has been investigated in undamaged and copper ion pre-damaged tungsten exposed to low-energy and high-flux helium plasma (60 eV, 1 × 1022 He/m2s). The results measured by Doppler broadening positron annihilation spectroscopy (DB-PAS) indicate that helium-vacancy complexes generate due to intense self-trapping in the undamaged tungsten after helium plasma exposure. In contrast, the occupation of pre-existing vacancies and vacancy clusters, caused by the presence helium atoms, plays a dominant role in the pre-damaged tungsten, but the density of vacancy-type defects in the pre-damaged case is still higher than that in the undamaged case. This means that the dominating process of helium-vacancy complexes formation in tungsten changes from self-trapping to vacancy-trapping in the case of high vacancy density. Meanwhile, the elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results reveal that these pre-existing defects can increase helium retention and helium nano-bubble size. However, it is surprising that in the case of pre-damaged sample, the density/volume of vacancy-type defects also decreased even outside of the helium distribution depth. We attribute this phenomenon to the interstitial dislocation loops punched by helium clusters preferentially diffusing into the pre-damage regions of tungsten far beyond the helium distribution depth, resulting in the significant recombination with vacancies or vacancy clusters. This intrinsic mechanism is further verified by TEM observations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.