Surface Structure Modification and Deuterium Retention in Tungsten under Pulsed Plasma Loads

Abstract

Modification of the surface layer and deuterium accumulation in tungsten targets under plasma irradiation in a quasi-stationary plasma accelerator with an intrinsic magnetic field QSPA-T, which reproduces the conditions (plasma thermal load of 0.2-5 MJ/m², pulse duration of 0.1-1.2 ms) typical of ELM events in ITER, are studied. Using a scanning electron microscope, structure modifications at the surface and in the bulk after deuterium plasma irradiation are analyzed. The observed changes in the near-surface layer are compared with the calculated data on the change in the internal structure of tungsten under intense thermal action obtained as a result of the numerical solution of the heat conduction problem. The total deuterium retention in the samples was measured using thermal desorption spectroscopy, and it was in the range of (3-4) × 1016 particles/cm² for the samples melted during plasma exposure. These numbers exceed by an order of magnitude the values obtained for samples without traces of melting.