Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The thermodynamic and kinetic interactions of He interstitial clusters with bubbles in W

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4951706· OSTI ID:22596709
; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Theoretical Division T-1, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
  2. Materials Science and Technology MST-8, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
Due to its enviable properties, tungsten is a leading candidate plasma facing material in nuclear fusion reactors. However, like many other metals, tungsten is known to be affected by the high doses of helium atoms incoming from the plasma. Indeed, the implanted interstitial helium atoms cluster together and, upon reaching a critical cluster size, convert into substitutional nanoscale He bubbles. These bubbles then grow by absorbing further interstitial clusters from the matrix. This process can lead to deleterious changes in microstructure, degradation of mechanical properties, and contamination of the plasma. In order to better understand the growth process, we use traditional and accelerated molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the interactions between interstitial He clusters and pre-existing bubbles. These interactions are characterized in terms of thermodynamics and kinetics. We show that the proximity of the bubble leads to an enhancement of the trap mutation rate and, consequently, to the nucleation of satellite bubbles in the neighborhood of existing ones. We also uncover a number of mechanisms that can lead to the subsequent annihilation of such satellite nanobubbles.
OSTI ID:
22596709
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 119; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (49)

On the low-temperature nucleation and growth of bubbles by helium bombardment of metals journal December 1981
Molecular dynamics simulations of helium cluster formation in tungsten
  • Henriksson, K. O. E.; Nordlund, K.; Keinonen, J.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 244, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2005.10.020
journal March 2006
Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Methods: Introduction and Recent Developments book January 2009
Materials for the plasma-facing components of fusion reactors journal August 2004
Energetics and formation kinetics of helium bubbles in metals journal January 1983
Helium retention and early stages of helium-vacancy complexes formation in low energy helium-implanted tungsten journal February 2013
Atomistic modeling of growth and coalescence of helium nano-bubbles in tungsten journal August 2015
He cluster dynamics in fusion related plasma facing materials journal June 2015
Plasma–wall interaction issues in ITER journal March 2001
Tungsten surface evolution by helium bubble nucleation, growth and rupture journal June 2013
Helium irradiation effects on deuterium retention in tungsten journal November 2013
Visualization and analysis of atomistic simulation data with OVITO–the Open Visualization Tool journal December 2009
Parallel replica method for dynamics of infrequent events journal June 1998
Blister formation and deuterium retention on tungsten exposed to low energy and high flux deuterium plasma journal March 2005
On Estimation of a Probability Density Function and Mode journal September 1962
Formation mechanism of bubbles and holes on tungsten surface with low-energy and high-flux helium plasma irradiation in NAGDIS-II journal August 2004
Direct time-resolved observation of tungsten nanostructured growth due to helium plasma exposure journal March 2015
The parallel replica dynamics method – Coming of age journal April 2015
A review of dust in fusion devices: Implications for safety and operational performance journal December 2002
Diffusion and transformation kinetics of small Helium clusters in bulk Tungsten text January 2014
Thermal stability of helium–vacancy clusters in iron journal April 2003
A mathematical formalization of the parallel replica dynamics journal January 2012
A new interatomic potential function for helium journal January 1968
An improved N -body semi-empirical model for body-centred cubic transition metals journal July 1987
Diffusion and transformation kinetics of small helium clusters in bulk tungsten journal July 2014
Measuring helium bubble diameter distributions in tungsten with grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) journal January 2016
Helium bubble bursting in tungsten journal December 2013
Interatomic potentials for simulation of He bubble formation in W journal January 2013
Microstructure evolution in tungsten during low-energy helium ion irradiation journal December 2000
Vacancy creation by helium trapping at substitutional krypton in tungsten journal March 1977
Helium induced nanoscopic morphology on tungsten under fusion relevant plasma conditions journal January 2008
Helium segregation on surfaces of plasma-exposed tungsten journal January 2016
A mathematical formalization of the parallel replica dynamics preprint January 2011
Self-trapping of helium in metals journal November 1981
Kinetics of helium self-trapping in metals journal February 1983
Interactions of Point Defects and Elastic Inclusions journal February 1967
Loop punching and bubble rupture causing surface roughening —A model for W fuzz growth journal January 2014
Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics journal March 1995
Automated identification and indexing of dislocations in crystal interfaces journal October 2012
Theory of hydrogen and helium impurities in metals journal May 1984
A new interatomic potential function for helium journal January 1968
The effects of high fluence mixed-species (deuterium, helium, beryllium) plasma interactions with tungsten journal June 2009
Molecular-dynamics analysis of mobile helium cluster reactions near surfaces of plasma-exposed tungsten journal October 2015
Competing Kinetics and He Bubble Morphology in W journal March 2015
Dynamics of small mobile helium clusters near tungsten surfaces journal August 2014
Probing helium nano-bubble formation in tungsten with grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering journal March 2015
Formation of Nanostructured Tungsten with Arborescent Shape due to Helium Plasma Irradiation journal January 2006
Viscoelastic model of tungsten ‘fuzz’ growth journal December 2011
Helium impurity transport on grain boundaries: Enhanced or inhibited? journal June 2015

Cited By (6)

An Overview of Recent Standard and Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Helium Behavior in Tungsten journal August 2019
Effect of W self-implantation and He plasma exposure on early-stage defect and bubble formation in tungsten journal April 2018
Theoretical Model of Helium Bubble Growth and Density in Plasma-Facing Metals journal February 2020
Helium in-plane migration behavior on 〈1 0 0〉 symmetric tilt grain boundaries in tungsten journal July 2018
The mobility of small vacancy/helium complexes in tungsten and its impact on retention in fusion-relevant conditions journal May 2017
Helium flux effects on bubble growth and surface morphology in plasma-facing tungsten from large-scale molecular dynamics simulations journal May 2019