Depth profiling of the modification induced by high-flux deuterium plasma in tungsten and tungsten–tantalum alloys

The present work reports the results of an experimental study of the depth distribution and fluence dependence of deuterium plasma-induced material modification of tungsten and tungsten–tantalum alloys. Plasma-induced damage was created by exposure to high-flux deuterium plasma in the plasma generator Pilot-PSI, followed by the degassing and subsequent decoration of created defects with deuterium by another plasma exposure. The depth distribution of deuterium from the decorating exposure reflects the distribution of plasma-induced defects. Depth profiling of this decorating deuterium, was performed by nuclear reaction analysis. It was found that plasma-induced material modification, which manifested itself as an increase of the deuterium concentration in the samples pre-exposed with high-flux plasma in comparison to the samples without such pre-exposure extends down to more than5 µ m from the surface. This increase features a tendency to saturation with increasing fluence of the damaging high-flux plasma. Over the entire probing range, with the exception of the narrow surface region and the deep region beyond5 µ m, the deuterium content is lower in pre-exposed W–Ta than in similarly pre-exposed W. Sub-surface features formed as a result of high-flux plasma exposure were studied with the help of focused ion beam cross-sectioning. W was found to contain plasma-induced cavities down to much larger depth than W–Ta.