A new thermo-desorption laser-heating setup for studying noble gas diffusion and release from materials at high temperatures

Denis Horlait; Rémi Faure; Bertrand A Thomas; Nicolas Devert; Marie-Lyne Amany; Gaëlle Carlot; Éric Gilabert

doi:10.1063/5.0068858

A new thermo-desorption laser-heating setup for studying noble gas diffusion and release from materials at high temperatures

Rev Sci Instrum. 2021 Dec 1;92(12):124102. doi: 10.1063/5.0068858.

Authors

Denis Horlait¹, Rémi Faure¹, Bertrand A Thomas¹, Nicolas Devert¹, Marie-Lyne Amany², Gaëlle Carlot³, Éric Gilabert¹

Affiliations

¹ Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, CENBG-IN2P3, F-33170 Gradignan, France.
² CEMHTI, CNRS, UPR3079, University of Orléans, F-45071 Orléans, France.
³ CEA, DEN, DEC, F-13108 Saint Paul lez Durance Cedex, France.

PMID: 34972464
DOI: 10.1063/5.0068858

Abstract

A new heating and gas treatment line for Thermo-Desorption Spectrometry (TDS) of noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) is presented. It was built with the primary objective to offer advanced temperature controls and capabilities while working in a cold environment. By choosing a high-power continuous wave laser as the heating source and using a proportional-integral-derivative controller system, TDS of noble gases can now be performed with fast and highly steady heating ramps (e.g., less than 1 °C deviation from the set point for ≤1 °C s^-1 ramps). Sample temperature over 2000 °C can also routinely be reached, with limited heating of the sample support and the sample chamber, offering the possibility to have several samples awaiting in the ultra-high vacuum chamber. We also present the development efforts made to increase temperature homogeneity of the heated sample while limiting the contact with the sample holder. Recent results acquired with this TDS setup on krypton thermal diffusion in uranium dioxide (UO₂) as a function of O₂ additions are also presented as an application example.