Influence of suppressed blistering by heavy ion pre-damage on deuterium retention in tungsten

Surface damage and fuel retention are one of the major threats to the performance of plasma-facing materials (PFMs) in ITER and future fusion reactors. This work aims to investigate the influence of suppressed blistering by heavy ion pre-damage on deuterium (D) retention in tungsten (W). Recrystallized W samples were irradiated with 3.5 MeV iron (Fe13+) ions at room temperature to create displacement damage with a peak damage level of 0.1 dpa. Afterwards, a series of low-energy (38 eV) D plasma exposures were performed at 500 K. Three exposure fluences below and above the blistering threshold (5 × 1024 ∼ 3 × 1025 D m−2) of the pre-damaged W are selected to decouple and couple the damage-induced defects and blistering-induced defects, respectively. Surface observations show that no blisters are formed in un-damaged W after low-fluence D exposure (5 × 1024 D m−2), whereas severe blistering (surface coverage ratio: 34.2 %) occurs in the high-fluence case (3 × 1025 D m−2). In contrast, only a small number of blisters (4.2 %) are formed in Fe-damaged W when D fluence reaches 3 × 1025 D m−2. Moreover, Fe pre-damage increases D retention by a factor of 3.33 and 1.20 at the low-fluence (5 × 1024 D m−2) and medium-fluence (1 × 1025 D m−2) D exposure, respectively. While in the high-fluence case (3 × 1025 D m−2), the enhancement effect of D retention in Fe-damaged W is significantly weakened, such that retention is lower for damaged W, probably due to the significant suppression effect on surface blistering and its accompanying defect formation. This work highlights the suppressed blistering-induced D retention by pre-existing damage in W.