3He Behaviour in Li2TiO3 Ceramics for Fusion Breeding Blanket Applications

Abstract

After Li-transmutation in fusion breeder blanket (BB) materials, T and 4 He will diffuse reaching the breeder surface where will be desorbed. Considering the experimental difficulty of handling T, other light ions are chosen to simulate T behaviour. In the present work, 3 He was implanted to a fluence of 2*10 16 at/cm 2 at -120ºC using a 600 keV 3 He beam on sintered Li 2 TiO 3 ceramics, one of the best candidates as BB solid materials. Temperature was increased up to 900 ºC and the 3 He release curve registered during heating. The 3 He depth profiling is then obtained at -120ºC, after 1h of annealing at 150 ºC, and finally after 5min at the maximum temperature (900 ºC) using NR analysis. A previous work on D-depth thermal profiling reveals the importance of the matrix microstructural characteristics. Therefore both experiments are discussed comparatively.