Inter-diffusion analysis of joint interface of tungsten–rhenium couple

Abstract The tungsten–rhenium couple was prepared by using glow plasma physical vapor deposition (PVD) on the isotropic fine grained graphite (IG) substrates. Diffusion anneals of the tungsten–rhenium couple were conducted at the temperature from 1100 °C to 1400 °C to investigate the inter-diffusion behaviors. The results showed that the thickness of the inter-diffusion zone increased with increasing annealing temperature. The relationship between the inter-diffusion coefficient and the annealing temperature accorded with the Arrhenius manner. The value of inter-diffusion activation energies was 189 kJ/mole (1.96 eV). The service time of tungsten–rhenium multilayer diffusion barrier was limited by the inter-diffusion for rhenium and tungsten rather than the diffusion of carbon in rhenium.