Effect of tantalum doping on blistering behavior and retention in tungsten exposed to deuterium plasma

Pure tungsten and tungsten tantalum (5 wt% ta) were prepared by powder metallurgy method, and then 40 eV deuterium plasma was injected into a linear plasma device with 1.08 × 10²⁶ D/m² energy. The irradiation properties of pure W and W-5%Ta were compared by a set of supplementary analysis techniques. The results show that adding proper amount of tantalum can effectively reduce the foaming caused by deuterium. In addition, TDS results show that the main desorption peak of pure tungsten is about 650 K, and the shoulder is at 730 K. For W-5%Ta alloy, the main desorption peak is about 810 K, and the deuterium retention in pure W is 4 times of that in W-5%Ta alloy. In addition, we also measured the hardness of pure W and W-5%Ta, which are 4.3 Gpa and 7.3 Gpa, respectively. The above phenomenon is due to the change of the microstructure and composition of the material. (paper)