A local mixing model for deuterium replacement in solids

Abstract

A new model for hydrogen isotope exchange by ion implantation has been developed. The basic difference between our approach and previous work is that we include the depth distribution of the implanted species. The outstanding feature of this local mixing model is that the only adjustable parameter is the saturation hydrogen concentration which is specific to the target material and dependent only on temperature. The model is shown to give excellent agreement both with new data on H/D exchange in the low Z, coating materials VB₂, Tie, TiB₂, and B reported here and with previously reported data on stainless steel. The saturation hydrogen concentrations used to fit these data were 0.15, 0.25, 0.15, 0.45, and 1.00 times atomic density respectively. This model should be useful in predicting the recycling behavior of hydrogen isotopes in tokamak limiter and wall materials.