DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Large-scale atomistic simulations of low-energy helium implantation into tungsten single crystals

Journal Article · · Acta Materialia
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)
  2. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  3. Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of post-implantation helium behavior in plasma-facing tungsten single crystals reveal orientation-dependent depth profiles, surface evolution patterns, and other crystallographic and diffusion-related characteristics of helium behavior in tungsten during the first microsecond. Here, the flux of implanted helium atoms studied, Γ ≈ 4 × 1025 m-2 s-1, is about one order of magnitude larger than that expected in ITER, the experimental fusion reactor currently being constructed in France. With simulation times on the order of 1 μs, these results serve to discover the mechanisms involved in surface evolution as well as to serve as benchmarks for coarse-grained simulations such as kinetic Monte Carlo and continuum-scale drift–reaction–diffusion cluster dynamics simulations. The findings of our large-scale simulations are significant due to diminished finite-size effects and the longer times reached (corresponding to higher fluences). Specifically, our findings are drastically different from findings published previously in the literature for (001) surfaces under a helium flux of Γ ~ 1028 m-2 s-1, which is typical of smaller size and shorter time atomistic simulations. In particular, this study highlights the atomic-scale materials processes relevant to helium entrapment and transport in metals, which have implications not only for nuclear fusion–relevant processes, but also helium-induced embrittlement in irradiated materials such as hospital equipment and fission reactor materials.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0008875; 4000135920; AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1462025
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1496511
Journal Information:
Acta Materialia, Vol. 144, Issue C; ISSN 1359-6454
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (73)

Formation mechanism of bubbles and holes on tungsten surface with low-energy and high-flux helium plasma irradiation in NAGDIS-II journal August 2004
Hybrid simulation research on formation mechanism of tungsten nanostructure induced by helium plasma irradiation journal August 2015
Materials for the plasma-facing components of fusion reactors journal August 2004
Formation of helium induced nanostructure ‘fuzz’ on various tungsten grades journal September 2010
Helium bubble bursting in tungsten journal December 2013
Helium segregation on surfaces of plasma-exposed tungsten journal January 2016
Comparison of tungsten nano-tendrils grown in Alcator C-Mod and linear plasma devices journal July 2013
Dynamics of small mobile helium clusters near tungsten surfaces journal August 2014
Formation of Nanostructured Tungsten with Arborescent Shape due to Helium Plasma Irradiation journal January 2006
Interactions of mobile helium clusters with surfaces and grain boundaries of plasma-exposed tungsten journal May 2014
Tungsten ‘fuzz’ growth re-examined: the dependence on ion fluence in non-erosive and erosive helium plasma journal August 2015
New Approach to Calculation of Total Energies of Solids with Defects: Surface-Energy Anisotropies journal November 1987
Tungsten nano-tendril growth in the Alcator C-Mod divertor journal March 2012
Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics journal March 1995
Characterization of a compact ECR plasma source and its applications to studies of helium ion damage to tungsten journal January 2016
Surface damage in ultrafine and multimodal grained tungsten materials induced by low energy helium irradiation journal March 2013
Present Research Status on Divertor and Plasma Facing Components for Fusion Power Plants journal July 2003
A simple empirical N -body potential for transition metals journal July 1984
Challenges and opportunities of modeling plasma–surface interactions in tungsten using high-performance computing journal August 2015
Chapter 1: Overview and summary journal December 1999
Formation process of tungsten nanostructure by the exposure to helium plasma under fusion relevant plasma conditions journal August 2009
The effects of high fluence mixed-species (deuterium, helium, beryllium) plasma interactions with tungsten journal June 2009
AtomEye: an efficient atomistic configuration viewer journal January 2003
Sputtering properties of tungsten ‘fuzzy’ surfaces journal August 2011
A new interatomic potential function for helium journal January 1968
Molecular dynamics study of helium bubble pressure in tungsten journal June 2015
Molecular dynamics simulations on the effect of sub-surface helium bubbles on the sputtering yield of tungsten journal July 2013
Observations of suppressed retention and blistering for tungsten exposed to deuterium–helium mixture plasmas journal May 2009
Influence of crystal orientation on damages of tungsten exposed to helium plasma journal July 2013
A unified formulation of the constant temperature molecular dynamics methods journal July 1984
Helium impurity transport on grain boundaries: Enhanced or inhibited? journal June 2015
Tungsten nanostructure formation in a magnetron sputtering device journal October 2014
Interatomic potentials for simulation of He bubble formation in W journal January 2013
Benchmarks and Tests of a Multidimensional Cluster Dynamics Model of Helium Implantation in Tungsten journal January 2017
Dynamics of Small Mobile Helium Clusters Near a Symmetric Tilt Grain Boundary of Plasma-Exposed Tungsten journal January 2017
Tungsten surface evolution by helium bubble nucleation, growth and rupture journal June 2013
Modeling Helium Segregation to the Surfaces of Plasma-Exposed Tungsten as a Function of Temperature and Surface Orientation journal January 2017
Nanoscale surface morphology of tungsten materials induced by Be-seeded D-He plasma exposure journal October 2011
Surface energy of arbitrary crystal plane of bcc and fcc metals journal August 2000
Simulation of Helium Behavior Near Subsurface Prismatic Dislocation Loops in Tungsten journal January 2017
A molecular dynamics study on bubble growth in tungsten under helium irradiation journal August 2015
Nosé–Hoover chains: The canonical ensemble via continuous dynamics journal August 1992
Erratum: “Crystal orientation effects on helium ion depth distributions and adatom formation processes in plasma-facing tungsten” [J. Appl. Phys. 116, 143301 (2014)] journal December 2015
Sub-ms laser pulse irradiation on tungsten target damaged by exposure to helium plasma journal September 2007
Thermal stability of helium–vacancy clusters in iron journal April 2003
Plasma–wall interaction issues in ITER journal March 2001
Sputtering yields of pure and helium-implanted tungsten under fusion-relevant conditions calculated using molecular dynamics journal March 2015
An improved N -body semi-empirical model for body-centred cubic transition metals journal July 1987
MD simulations of onset of tungsten fuzz formation under helium irradiation journal May 2013
Theoretical studies of ultrathin film-induced faceting on W(111) surfaces journal August 1992
Molecular dynamics simulations of the diffusion and coalescence of helium in tungsten journal March 2014
Molecular dynamics simulation of helium cluster diffusion and bubble formation in bulk tungsten journal December 2014
Crystal orientation effects on helium ion depth distributions and adatom formation processes in plasma-facing tungsten journal October 2014
Microstructure evolution in tungsten during low-energy helium ion irradiation journal December 2000
Growth Rate Effects on the Formation of Dislocation Loops Around Deep Helium Bubbles in Tungsten journal January 2017
Molecular dynamics simulation of a helium bubble bursting on tungsten surfaces journal April 2014
A molecular dynamics study of helium bubble formation and gas release near titanium surfaces journal July 2013
A new interatomic potential function for helium journal January 1968
Visualization and analysis of atomistic simulation data with OVITO–the Open Visualization Tool journal December 2009
Low energy and low fluence helium implantations in tungsten: Molecular dynamics simulations and experiments journal March 2016
Canonical dynamics: Equilibrium phase-space distributions journal March 1985
Simulations of the Initial Stages of Blistering in Helium Implanted Tungsten journal January 2004
Surface morphology and helium retention on tungsten exposed to low energy and high flux helium plasma journal March 2003
In situ reflectivity of tungsten mirrors under helium plasma exposure journal June 2009
Molecular-dynamics analysis of mobile helium cluster reactions near surfaces of plasma-exposed tungsten journal October 2015
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
Effect of tungsten crystallographic orientation on He-ion-induced surface morphology changes journal January 2014
Formation and retention of surface pores in helium-implanted nano-grain tungsten for fusion reactor first-wall materials and divertor plates journal December 2009
Competing Kinetics and He Bubble Morphology in W journal March 2015
Mersenne twister: a 623-dimensionally equidistributed uniform pseudo-random number generator journal January 1998
Helium bubble formation on tungsten in dependence of fabrication method journal October 2011
Plasma-material interactions in current tokamaks and their implications for next step fusion reactors journal December 2001
Helium induced nanoscopic morphology on tungsten under fusion relevant plasma conditions journal January 2008