Research paper

Defect Evolution in H/He Neutral Beam Irradiated W-ZrC Alloy Using Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy

  • Xuefen TIAN ,
  • Xiang LIU ,
  • Min GONG ,
  • Peiyuan ZHANG ,
  • Kang WANG ,
  • Aihong DENG
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  • 1.College of Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
    2.Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu 610041, China
    3.College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Heze University, Heze 274015, China

Received date: 2020-05-28

  Revised date: 2020-07-21

  Online published: 2020-08-13

Supported by

National Natural Science Foundation of China(11675114)

Abstract

Plasma facing materials (PFMs) in future magnetic fusion devices will face various challenges, such as 14.1 MeV neutron and transmutation gas irradiation at high temperatures. W has been considered as one of the most effective candidates for a PFM in recent years. However, pure W exhibits some drawbacks that limit its applications. Conversely, W-ZrC (W-0.5%ZrC, mass fraction) alloy demonstrates excellent performance, such as a relatively low ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT), high ductility, and high strength, which will be particularly useful in future fusion reactors. In this work, the Doppler-broadening slow positron beam analysis (DB-SPBA) and SEM were used to characterize the W-ZrC alloy, which had been irradiated by pure H neutral beam or H+6%He (atomic fraction) neutral beam. In the DB-SPBA, parameters S and W were used to characterize the open volume defects in the samples. Under the pure H neutral beam irradiation, the defects were mainly H-V complexes with a large ratio of vacancy to H in the sample at the surface temperature of 850oC. When the surface temperature of the irradiated sample was 1000oC, there was only one kind of vacancy-type defect without any defect damage layer due to the recovery of defect damage in the sample. The surface morphology was smooth and flat at the irradiated sample surface temperature of 1000oC, and the most of pinhole damage structures disappeared compared to the surface temperature of 850oC. The S value in the sample subjected to the H+6%He neutral beam irradiation at the surface temperature of 800oC was larger than that at 700oC because of the increasing vacancy-type defect volume, and defect types were more complex in the 800oC sample. The defect damage layer in the 800oC sample was wider than that in the 700oC sample. Both the 700oC and 800oC samples presented more than one type of defects, but the sample surface damage was significantly more serious at 800oC.

Key words: W-ZrC; H; H/He; positron annihilation

Cite this article

Xuefen TIAN , Xiang LIU , Min GONG , Peiyuan ZHANG , Kang WANG , Aihong DENG . Defect Evolution in H/He Neutral Beam Irradiated W-ZrC Alloy Using Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy[J]. Acta Metall Sin, 2021 , 57(1) : 121 -128 . DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2020.00183

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