Release of deuterium from irradiation damage in Fe–9Cr–2W ferritic alloy irradiated with deuterium ions

The release profile of deuterium from an Fe–9Cr–2W ferritic alloy irradiated with low-energy deuterium ions was studied by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that one sharp TDS peak appeared at a temperature around 410 K depending on the heating rate that ranged from 1.5 to 20 K/min. The TDS peak height increased with increasing fluence from 2 × 10¹⁹ to 2 × 10²¹ D⁺/m² with no shift of the peak temperature. A close correlation between these TDS peaks and the disappearance of dislocation loops formed by the irradiation was observed. The effects of tiny bubbles on TDS were small. These results suggest that most of the deuterium was trapped by dislocation loops, which affected the thermal stability of dislocation loops in the alloy. The dependence of TDS peak temperature on the heating rate yielded an activation energy of 0.63 ± 0.02 eV for deuterium de-trapping from dislocation loops. The retention properties of the total amount of deuterium exhibited a tendency of saturation at values on the order of 10²⁰ D⁺/m², which corresponded to a saturation tendency of the loop density