SUBSTITUTION OF HEAVY HYDROGEN ISOTOPES IN TUNGSTEN LAYERS DURING GAS EXPOSURE
Efficiency of deuterium removal from tungsten co-deposited layers was studied by means of thermal desorption spectroscopy in the 30 to 200 °С temperature range in vacuum and hydrogen atmosphere (8×104 Pa). Tungsten layers 100 nm and 500 nm thick were deposited in magnetron discharge in argon-deuterium environment and contained ~2% at. of deuterium. Presence of hydrogen (protium) during sample degassing increases the rate of deuterium removal. Simultaneously, an additional amount of protium is captured in the co-deposited layers. The rate of deuterium removal increases with temperature. Exposure at a temperature of 473 K in a hydrogen atmosphere for 18 hours allowed 99% of the captured deuterium to be removed.