Influence of temperature and plasma composition on deuterium retention in refractory metals

Abstract

Abstract Refractory materials are being considered potential candidates to build the first wall of the fusion reactor chamber. This work reports on the results of the study of tungsten and molybdenum metals exposed to high flux densities (∼1024 D/m2 s) and low temperature (Te ∼ 3 eV) deuterium plasmas in Pilot-PSI irradiation facility. The hydrogenic retention in poly-crystalline W and Mo targets was studied with 3He nuclear reaction analyses (NRA). The NRA results clearly show a two-dimensional radial distribution of the deuterium with a minimum at the center and a maximum close to the edge. These distribution correlates well with the thermal profile of the sample surface, where a maximum of ∼1600 K was measured at the center decreasing to ∼1000 K in the edges. A maximum deuterium fluence retention of 5 × 1015 D/cm2 was measured. The values of the retained fractions ranging from 10−5 to 10−6 Dretained/Dincident were measured with thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and compares well with IBA results. Moreover, the presence of C in the plasma and its co-deposition increases the D retention in the region where a C film is formed. Both NRA and TDS results show no clear dependence of retention on incident fluence suggesting the absence of plasma related traps in W under these conditions.