TEM study of the nucleation of bubbles induced by He implantation in 316L industrial austenitic stainless steel

10 keV He ions were implanted in-situ in a TEM into thin foils of 316L industrial austenitic stainless steel at temperatures ranging from 200 to 550 °C. As a result, overpressurized nanometric bubbles are created with density and size depending strongly on both the temperature and fluence of implantation. An investigation on their nucleation and growth is reported through a rigorous statistical analysis whose procedure, including the consideration of free surface effects, is detailed. In the parameter range considered, the results show that an increase of fluence promotes both the nucleation and growth of the bubbles whilst an increase of temperature enhances the growth of the bubbles at the expense of their nucleation. The confrontation of resulting activation energies with existing models for bubble nucleation enables the identification of the underlying mechanisms. In spite of slight differences resulting from different conditions of implantation among which the He concentration, He production rate and He/dpa ratio, it appears that the dominating mechanisms are the same as those obtained in metals in previous studies, which, in addition to corroborating literature results, shows the suitability of in-situ TEM experiments to simulate the production of helium in nuclear materials.