Absence of synergistic effects in quasi-simultaneous sputtering of tungsten by Ar and D ions

• Published in: Nuclear materials and energy Vol. 35; p. 101435
• Main Authors: Cupak, C., Brandstätter, F., Cserveny, R., Troneberger, F., Biber, H., Fellinger, M., Redl, A., Moro, M.V., Böhm, D., Eisenmenger-Sittner, Ch, Mutzke, A., Primetzhofer, D., Aumayr, F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-06-2023; Elsevier
• Subjects: Argon; Deuterium; Mixed irradiation; Sputtering yield; Tungsten; Deuterium; Argon; Mixed irradiation; Tungsten; Sputtering yield
• ISSN: 2352-1791; 2352-1791
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nme.2023.101435

A quartz crystal microbalance was used to experimentally study the erosion of tungsten during rapidly alternating bombardment with 2 keV argon and deuterium projectiles. A key goal was to investigate whether the mean sputtering yield of the alternating irradiation can be predicted from data for sputtering yields of single ion species. In addition, influences by residual gas pressure in the UHV experiment and variable ion fluxes have been studied. Our results show that the mean sputtering yield of irradiations with alternating ion species can be well predicted for a range of different fluence ratios as a simple superposition of individual sputtering yields, weighted by the respective relative fluences. This finding supports that no synergistic sputtering effects were relevant in the investigated low-flux regime.
•Quasi-parallel irradiation with Ar and D was achieved with a single ion source.•The sputter yield of mixed ion irradiation scales with the fluence ratio.•No synergistic effects were found compared to irradiation with single ion species.