The Annealing Behavior Of Helium Bubble In Metals Studied By Ion Beam Analysis

Helium bubbles will be harmful to the nature of many materials including the core-structure materials in the nuclear fusion reactor. To realize the behavior of helium bubble will be very helpful to the understanding the influence in the nature of materials from the helium bubble. Due to the advantage of quantitive, non-destructive and quick and so on, ion beam analysis has been used widely in the determination of elements and their distribution in the materials. In this paper, ion beam analysis is creatively used to study the behavior of the helium bubble. This not only complementarily to the application of the ion beam analysis, but also can study the behavior of the helium bubble in non-destructive to the material, so that can really reflect the behavior of the helium bubble in material. So it is greatly significantly.Firstly, the helium-contained samples have been prepared by DC magnetron sputtering and ECR plasma inject. And then the samples have been annealed at different temperatures. Secondly, ion beam analysis has been used to study the behavior of the helium in the samples. And then the results have been compared and proved by other methods (TEM, AFM, TDS, PAS and XRD).1) the low energy edge of the RBS spectrum is broadened when the sample is annealed or contains high concentration of helium, and it is increased as the annealed temperature and the concentration. This is caused by the formation and coarsening of helium bubble. Hence, the new way of studying helium behavior by ion beam analysis is raised.2) theoretical calculation finds that a spectrum from ion beam analysis will change at different stopping cross sections. This is more visible at a deeper place in the sample. Helium-contained Ti films annealed at different temperatures are prepared to gain different stopping cross sections whereby the stopping cross section will change with the helium phase states and the pressure of helium bubbles, so that the helium concentration at different helium stopping cross sections can be determined by ion beam analysis. It is found that the concentration curve rises greatly after the sample is annealed at 673K which reflects the increasing size of the helium bubble. Hence, the new way of studying helium behavior by ion beam analysis is raised.3) the results gained from the ion beam analysis are compared by other methods like TEM, AFM, TDS, PAS and XRD. It shows that the results from IBA and other methods are consistent: the helium bubble is formed and coarsened as the helium concentration and annealed temperature. This means that the IBA is also a good way to study the behavior of helium.