X-ray diffraction analysis of titanium tritide film during 1600 days

The generation and accumulation of 3He by tritium decay modified the physical and chemical properties of tritides. Here the evolution of lattice defects in long-aged titanium tritide films is investigated by X-ray diffraction and changes in the positions, intensities and line shapes of diffraction peaks have been determined over a period of about 1600 days (>4 years). Texture effects are also observed by biased intensities in standard θ–2θ scans. The results show that the TiT1.5 film keeps an fcc structure during 1600 days and reveals an hkl-dependent unit-cell expansion and line width broadening which are interpreted in terms of isolated tetrahedral interstitial 3He atoms and isolated bubble growth models by dislocation loop-punching or dislocation dipole expansion combined with Krivoglaz theory. In the first 12 days of aging, isolated tetrahedral interstitial 3He atoms or 3He clusters are formed, then interstitial 3He atoms diffuse into (1 1 1) planes and precipitate into clusters. The spontaneous formation of Frenkel pairs, the self-interstitial atoms produced are built into dislocations resulting in formation platelet bubbles and dislocation dipoles between 12 and 27 days. Above 27 days, multiple stages of 3He bubbles growth appear: (1) between 27 and 85 days platelet helium bubbles growth by dislocation dipoles expansion, (2) between 85 and 231 days the transition from platelet bubbles to sphere bubbles by loop emission, (3) after 231 days sphere bubbles growth by dislocation loop-punching and probably formation of sub-grain boundaries by dislocation rearrangement.