Surface morphologies of He-implanted tungsten

Surface morphologies of tungsten surfaces, both polycrystalline and single-crystal [110], were investigated using SEM and FIB/SEM techniques after implantations at elevated surfaces temperatures (1200–1300K) using well-characterized, mono-energetic He ion beams with a wide range of ion energies (218eV–250keV). Nanofuzz was observed on polycrystalline tungsten (PCW) following implantation of 100-keV He ions at a flux threshold of 0.9×1016cm−2s−1, but not following 200-keV implantations with similar fluxes. No nanofuzz formation was observed on single-crystal [110] tungsten (SCW), despite fluxes exceeding those demonstrated previously to produce nanofuzz on polycrystalline tungsten. Pre-damaging the single-crystal tungsten with implanted C impurity interstitials did not significantly affect the surface morphologies resulting from the high-flux He ion implantations. The main factor leading to the different observed surface structures for the pristine and C-implanted single-crystal W samples appeared to be the peak He ion flux characterizing the different exposures. It was speculated that nanofuzz formation was not observed for any SCW target exposures because of increased incubation fluences required for such targets.