Suppression of repetitive surface exfoliation of Inconel 625 implanted sequentially with helium ions of different energies (20–100 keV)

Abstract

Studies were conducted to explore if the surface exfoliation of Inconel 625, typical for 100 keV 4He + irradiations can be reduced by pre-irradiating the surfaces with helium ions sequentially over the energy range 20 to 50 keV. Polished, polycrystalline Inconel 625 samples were irradiated at 298K and 573K with 4He + at six different energies in the range from 20 to 50 keV in an order of decreasing energies. For each energy the dose was 0.13 C/cm 2, resulting in a total dose of 0.89 C/cm 2. Subsequently, these samples were implanted with 100 keV 4He + to a dose of 1.0 C/cm 2 or 2.0 C/cm 2. The results reveal that the low energy 4He + implants prior to the 100 keV 4He + implant reduce significantly the erosion yield typical for 100-keV 4He + irradiations alone. For 573K these reduced yields are still about one order of magnitude greater than physical sputtering yields.