Tolstolutskaya G. Mechanisms of radiation damage of the surface layers of solids under the bombardment by ions of inert gases and hydrogen

Object: physical processes occurring during interaction of ion beams and plasma with solids. The purpose: determination of the mechanisms and main regularities of physical processes in solids, which relate to irradiation damaging, defect structure evolution of irradiated materials and simultaneous implantation of inert gases and hydrogen. Methods: Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, channeling, nuclear reaction analysis, thermodesorption mass-spectrometry, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopic metallography, X-ray energy-dispersive microanalysis, Vickers microhardness testing, X-ray structure analysis. Results: Configurations of point defects and clusters, dose dependences of point defect accumulation have been investigated at the atomic level. Regularities of space-concentration distributions of implanted hydrogen, helium, krypton and xenon have been established. Data on energy distributions of deuterium recoil atoms have been obtained. A qualitative difference is found between the structures observed on the surface of metals exposed to plasma and the structures formed during irradiation of the same metals with mono-energetic beams of helium ions. The main effect of plasma action was sputtering of solid-material surface layers. Processes of accumulation and retention of hydrogen (deuterium) in the material bulk have been studied; the relationship of the processes causing the hydrogen retention with the structure of material has been established. Formation of helium bubbles in steel 18Cr10NiTi leads to a one-order increase in retained deuterium. The field of application: solid-state physics, radiation and outer space materials science, nuclear engineering, radiation safety.