Bulk retention of deuterium in graphites exposed to deuterium plasma at high temperature

A highly ionized deuterium plasma with a low residual gas pressure and a high intensity D ₂⁺-ion beam were used for the study of deuterium retention in RG-Ti-91 and POCO AXF-5Q graphites. Deuterium retention in the samples was estimated by TDS during heating to 2000 K. Mechanical removal of a surface layer 100 μm thick was used to distinguish bulk and surface fractions of retained deuterium. The samples of RG-Ti and POCO graphites were exposed to a plasma with an ion flux of 3 × 10 ¹⁷ D/cm ² · s in the 'Lenta' plasma device for 10 to 10 ⁴ s at residual deuterium pressure of 0.04 Pa at 1400 K. Under plasma exposure deuterium capture in RG-Ti graphite reached the saturation level at a fluence of 4 × 10 ²⁰ D/cm ² while the bulk inventory was negligible. As for POCO graphite, deuterium retention increased with fluence and was equal to 18 appm in the bulk for a fluence of 7 × 10 ²¹ D/cm ². The same amount of deuterium in the bulk was obtained after gas exposure of POCO at an effective pressure of 0.8 Pa (1400 K, 6 h). With this result, the tritium concentration in the plasma-facing graphite materials can reach 1500 appm or 380 grams of tritium per ton of graphite. To understand the role of ion flux in generation of effective pressure, POCO was irradiated with 16 keV D ₂⁺-ions at 1400 K for 4 h to 8 × 10 ²⁰ D/cm ² (ion flux was 6 × 10 ¹⁶ D/cm ² · s, residual deuterium pressure was 0.004 Pa). The results are discussed on the basis of structural differences for POCO and RG-Ti graphites.