The impact of helium clusters on the electronic thermal transport properties of tungsten plasma-facing materials at finite temperatures

Abstract

In this work, we investigated the impact of different concentrations of helium (He) impurities on the electronic thermal transport properties of tungsten plasma-facing materials (W-PFMs) at finite temperatures using the W-He tight-binding (TB) potential model. We found that the electronic transport performance decreases with increasing He atom concentration at different sites, where the greatest reduction in the electrical conductivity of the system is caused by the introduction of He atoms at neighboring tetrahedral sites. As the temperature increases, the electrical conductivity decreases, while the electronic thermal conductivity increases. Importantly, the higher the temperature is, the weaker the response of the electrical conductivity and electronic thermal conductivity to the He atom concentration. We suggest that this behavior is attributed to the diverse contributions of scattering mechanisms within various temperature ranges. Furthermore, as the temperature increases, the electron scattering mechanism gradually transitions from electron-impurity scattering to electron-electron scattering. Additionally, our calculated atomic resolved electrical conductivity data indicate that at lower temperatures, the electrical conductivity is predominantly contributed by W atoms around the He cluster.