Surface oxidation behavior of uranium nitride in ion bombardment

A sufficient thickness uranium nitride layer was prepared by the surface glow plasma nitriding. To investigate the irradiation stability of the uranium nitride, argon ion bombardment of different energy was applied to simulate irradiation oxidation behaviors, and the behaviors were compared with the oxidation behaviors in atmosphere. It is found that the surface morphology of uranium nitride obviously changes after argon ion bombardment. The results show that there exist great differences in the oxidation behaviors. The degree of oxidation on the surface increases after ion bombardment, but the influence on oxidation behaviors is mainly in the shallow surface layer. The one in atmosphere has a thicker oxide layer. The degree and depth of oxidation increase with the bombarding energy. The influence caused by irradiation to uranium nitride reduces with the increment of the depth, and the integral stability of uranium nitride layer is not affected by the irradiation. (authors)