The influence of carbon impurities on the formation of loops in tungsten irradiated with self-ions

Jari Likonen, Nicolas Castin*, A Dubinko, G Bonny, Andree De Backer, Andrea Sand, Kalle Heinola, D. Terentyev

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    27 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The microstructure changes taking place in W under irradiation are governed by many factors, amongst which C impurities and their interactions with self-interstitial atoms (SIA). In this work, we specifically study this effect by conducting a dedicated 2-MeV self-ions irradiation experiment, at room temperature. Samples were irradiated up to 0.02, 0.15 and 1.2 dpa. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) expectedly revealed a large density of SIA loops at all these doses. Surprisingly, however, the loop number density increased in a non-monotonous manner with the received dose. Performing chemical analysis with secondary ion spectroscopy measurements (SIMS), we find that our samples were likely contaminated by C injection during the irradiation. Employing an object kinetic Monte Carlo (OKMC) model for microstructure evolution, we demonstrate that the C injection is the likely factor explaining the evolution of loops number density. Our findings highlight the importance of the well-known issue of C injection during ion irradiation experiments, and demonstrate how OKMC models can help to rationalize this effect.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number151808
    Number of pages8
    JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
    Volume527
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2019
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 and 2019-2020 under grant agreement No 633053.

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