Effects of Carbon Deposition on Deuterium Plasma-Driven Permeation Through Tungsten-Coated RAFM Steel

In steady-state operation of fusion reactors, eroded materials and contaminations, especially carbon (C), may deposit on the surface of plasma-facing components. In this work, the effects of C deposition on hydrogen isotope permeation behavior through tungsten (W)–coated reduced activation ferritic/martensitic (RAFM) steel were systematically investigated by plasma-driven permeation (PDP) measurements in the temperature range of 633 to 893 K. A C deposition layer with thickness of ~200 nm was prepared by magnetron sputtering to simulate the formation of C impurities in the first-wall area of tokamaks. The implantation depth of incident deuterium (D) ions was estimated to be <10 nm at incident energy of 114 eV. Deuterium effective diffusion coefficients (D_eff’s) for W-coated RAFM steel with/without a C layer were obtained. It was found that the C layer tended to increase D_eff in the low-temperature region of ~675 to 820 K. At high temperature, however, D_eff was measured be lower than that without a C layer. Nevertheless, the addition of a C layer had no significant effect on D_eff compared to the W coating alone with respect to bare RAFM steels. For steady-state D-PDP flux, it was found that the C layer significantly decreased D permeation flux at low temperature. But, the permeation flux difference between the samples with/without a C layer became smaller with increasing temperature, indicating that the influence of C deposition on D permeation was negligible at high temperature. Similar D-PDP behavior was detected as increasing the incident ion flux by means of increasing plasma discharge power. Surface reemission of absorbed D as well as the D concentration gradient throughout the sample was found to be influenced by C deposition; therefore, D permeation flux changed correspondingly.