Strongly Reduced Penetration of Atomic Deuterium in Radiation-Damaged Tungsten

Radiation-damaged tungsten is exposed to high-flux, low-energy deuterium plasmas at self-bias conditions. We observe that the fraction of deuterium that penetrates is only 10-5–10-7 of the plasma flux and strongly dependent on the local surface temperature. We propose that deuterium does not directly penetrate bulk tungsten but that it thermalizes at the surface, where it forms a protective chemisorbed layer. We find an energy barrier of 1–2 eV between the surface and bulk, causing the influx of deuterium to be low as compared to the number of defects and leading to slow filling of the damaged layer.