Effect of noble gas ion pre-irradiation on deuterium retention in tungsten

Impurity seeding of noble gases is an effective way of decreasing the heat loads onto the divertor targets in fusion devices. To investigate the effect of noble gases on deuterium retention, tungsten targets have been implanted by different noble gas ions and subsequently exposed to deuterium plasma. Irradiation induced defects and deuterium retention in tungsten targets have been characterized by positron annihilation Doppler broadening and thermal desorption spectroscopy. Similar defect distributions are observed in tungsten irradiated by neon and argon, while it is comparatively low in the case of helium. The influence of helium pre-irradiation on deuterium trapping is found to be small based on the desorption spectrum compared with that of the pristine one. Neon and argon pre-irradiation leads to an enhancement of deuterium trapping during plasma exposure. The influence on deuterium retention is found to be argon > neon > helium when comparing at a similar crystal damage level.