Surface morphology changes of tungsten exposed to high heat loading with mixed hydrogen/helium beams

Abstract We discuss the surface morphology modification of W samples observed after simultaneous heat and particle loading using a mixed H/He particle beam with a He concentration of 1 at.%. The applied heat flux of 10 MW/m 2 is representative for the normal operation of the divertor of DEMO or a power plant. The long pulse high heat flux experiments on actively water-cooled W samples were performed in the GLADIS facility at surface temperatures between 600 °C and 2000 °C. This allows together with the applied total fluences between 1 × 10 24 m −2 and 1 × 10 26 m −2 the temperature- and fluence dependent study of the growing nano-structures. We analyse in detail the surface modifications up to a depth of several μm by scanning electron microscopy combined with focussed ion beam preparation. The hydrogen and helium release of the samples is analysed by long term thermal desorption spectroscopy and compared with the prediction of a diffusion trapping model.