Effect of helium irradiation on deuterium permeation behavior in tungsten

In this study, we measured deuterium (D) gas-driven permeation through tungsten (W) foils that had been pre-damaged by helium ions (He+). The goal of this work was to determine how ion-induced damage affects hydrogen isotope permeation. At 873 K, the D permeability for W irradiated by 3.0 keV He+ was approximately one order of magnitude lower than that for un-damaged W. This difference diminished with increasing temperature. Even after heating to 1173 K, the permeability returned to less than half of the value measured for un-damaged W. We propose that this is due to nucleation of He bubbles near the surface which potentially serve as a barrier to diffusion deeper into the bulk. Exposure at higher temperatures shows that the D permeability and diffusion coefficients return to levels observed for undamaged material. It is possible that these effects are linked to annealing of defects introduced by ion damage, and whether the defects are stabilized by the presence of trapped He.