Helium Accumulation Behavior in Iron Based Model Alloys

Helium desorption from Fe-based model alloys irradiated by energetic helium ions was measured during post-irradiation annealing to investigate the energetics and kinetics of formation and annihilation of helium-related defects. Desorption temperatures were observed to be widely ranged from 450 to 1500 K, indicating that helium is bound to a wide variety of trapping sites such as vacancies and dislocations at various binding states. Such a feature is also observed in fusion ferritic steel. A comparison of helium desorption spectra obtained using Fe, Fe-Cr and Fe-Cr-Ni alloys showed that helium is more strongly trapped in bcc Fe than fcc Fe. It indicates that the long distance migration of helium takes place less frequently in bcc matrix, which may reduce the probability of helium clustering. Fusion ferric steel has a lot of trapping sites for helium such as dislocations, solute atoms, the interface of precipitates, impurities and lath boundaries, and so on, and in addition, it has bct matrix, indicating that most of helium atoms must be dispersed in the matrix and therefore it is difficult for them to cluster as a bubble. This may be a reason for higher helium resistance of the steel.