Interfacial trapping mechanism of He in Cu–Nb multilayer materials

He atom trapping in hetero-interphase materials is studied by atomistic simulations, focusing on the KS1 and KSmin interfaces in Cu–Nb. If the bulk crystalline materials are defect free, single He atoms eventually become absorbed into the interfacial region via one of two different processes. In the first process, all He atoms arriving at the interface from the Cu side of the interface and some He atoms arriving from the Nb side, are trapped via the formation of a helium-vacancy (HeV) cluster in the second or third interfacial planes of the copper crystal. The immobile HeV cluster is found to be stable against dissociation and recombination. In the second case the He atoms are absorbed as interstitial atoms in one of the terminal planes. This process is dependent on the interstitial content of the interface and is found to be weak in the case of the KS1 interface