Hybrid simulation research on formation mechanism of tungsten nanostructure induced by helium plasma irradiation

The generation of tungsten fuzzy nanostructure by exposure to helium plasma is one of the important problems for the use of tungsten material as divertor plates in nuclear fusion reactors. In the present paper, the formation mechanisms of the helium bubble and the tungsten fuzzy nanostructure were investigated by using several simulation methods. We proposed the four-step process which is composed of penetration step, diffusion and agglomeration step, helium bubble growth step, and fuzzy nanostructure formation step. As the fourth step, the formation of the tungsten fuzzy nanostructure was successfully reproduced by newly developed hybrid simulation combining between molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo method. The formation mechanism of tungsten fuzzy nanostructure observed by the hybrid simulation is that concavity and convexity of the surface are enhanced by the bursting of helium bubbles in the region around the concavity. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.