Rapid and damage-free outgassing of implanted helium from amorphous silicon oxycarbide

Qing Su; Hepeng Ding; Lloyd Price; Lin Shao; Jonathan A Hinks; Graeme Greaves; Stephen E Donnelly; Michael J Demkowicz; Michael Nastasi

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-23426-y

Rapid and damage-free outgassing of implanted helium from amorphous silicon oxycarbide

Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 22;8(1):5009. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23426-y.

Authors

Qing Su¹, Hepeng Ding^{2

3}, Lloyd Price⁴, Lin Shao⁴, Jonathan A Hinks⁵, Graeme Greaves⁵, Stephen E Donnelly⁵, Michael J Demkowicz², Michael Nastasi^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68583-0857, USA.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-3128, USA.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
⁴ Department of Nuclear Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-3128, USA.
⁵ School of Computing and Engineering, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, UK.
⁶ Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68583-0857, USA. mnastasi2@unl.edu.
⁷ Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68583-0857, USA. mnastasi2@unl.edu.

Abstract

Damage caused by implanted helium (He) is a major concern for material performance in future nuclear reactors. We use a combination of experiments and modeling to demonstrate that amorphous silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) is immune to He-induced damage. By contrast with other solids, where implanted He becomes immobilized in nanometer-scale precipitates, He in SiOC remains in solution and outgasses from the material via atomic-scale diffusion without damaging its free surfaces. Furthermore, the behavior of He in SiOC is not sensitive to the exact concentration of carbon and hydrogen in this material, indicating that the composition of SiOC may be tuned to optimize other properties without compromising resistance to implanted He.