Investigation of Er2O3 coating on liquid blanket components synthesized by the MOCVD process

Abstract

An electrical insulating coating on the blanket components such as ducts and walls is an attractive concept for reducting the Magneto Hydrodynamics pressure drop. Erbium oxide was shown to be a promising candidate coating because of its high stability in liquid lithium and high electrical resistivity. We have applied the Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) process to produce Er2O3 coating layers on the large areas and/or complicated shape components. Recently, we confirmed that Er2O3 coating layers were synthesized on a vanadium alloy and on silicon single crystal plates. In this work, we tried to form Er2O3 thin coating layer on the interior surface of the short quartz tube to demonstrate Er2O3 coating of components relevant to liquid blankets. The improvement found by the using an organic complex as the erbium source material and the effects of the deposition temperature for the further upgrading the MOCVD process were also evaluated.