The role of helium implantation induced vacancy defect on hardening of tungsten

Journal Article · Fri Mar 28 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4870234· OSTI ID:22271120

Ou, Xin ^[1]; Anwand, Wolfgang; Kögler, Reinhard ^[1]; Zhou, Hong-Bo ^[2]; Richter, Asta ^[3]

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1. Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstr. 400, 01328 Dresden (Germany)
2. Department of Physics, Beihang University, Beijing 100191 (China)
3. Technische Hochschule Wildau, Hochschulring1, 15745 Wildau (Germany)

Vacancy-type defects created by helium implantation in tungsten and their impact on the nano-hardness characteristics were investigated by correlating the results from the positron annihilation spectroscopy and the nano-indentation technique. Helium implantation was performed at room temperature (RT) and at an elevated temperate of 600 °C. Also, the effect of post-annealing of the RT implanted sample was studied. The S parameter characterizing the open volume in the material was found to increase after helium irradiation and is significantly enhanced for the samples thermally treated at 600 °C either by irradiation at high temperature or by post-annealing. Two types of helium-vacancy defects were detected after helium irradiation; small defects with high helium-to-vacancy ratio (low S parameter) for RT irradiation and large defects with low helium-to-vacancy ratio (high S parameter) for thermally treated tungsten. The hardness of the heat treated tungsten coincides with the S parameter, and hence is controlled by the large helium-vacancy defects. The hardness of tungsten irradiated at RT without thermal treatment is dominated by manufacturing related defects such as dislocation loops and impurity clusters and additionally by trapped He atoms from irradiation effects, which enhance hardness. He-stabilized dislocation loops mainly cause the very high hardness values in RT irradiated samples without post-annealing.

• OSTI ID: 22271120
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 115; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANNEALING
DISLOCATIONS
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
HARDNESS
HELIUM
IRRADIATION
POSITRONS
RADIATION HARDENING
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
TRAPPING
TUNGSTEN
VACANCIES