Deuterium plasma-driven permeation through vanadium, niobium and tantalum membranes

Deuterium (D) plasma-driven permeation (PDP) experiments for vanadium (V), niobium (Nb) and tantalum (Ta) membranes are performed between 573–873 K in the linear plasma facility PREFACE. The sample temperature, membrane thickness and ion incident energy effects on D permeation behavior through these three metals are studied. PDP fluxes of D through Ta and Nb decrease with decreasing sample temperature, except for the 0.05 mm thick Nb case. Moreover, a break point around 750 K can be observed on the flux-temperature curves for all V samples. The D PDP flux through Nb decreases as the thickness increases. For Ta and V samples, however, the permeation fluxes do not change significantly when their thicknesses are thinner than 0.1 mm. A drop in D permeation fluxes for the three materials is observed when increasing the ion incident energy. The surface morphology is checked by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Only the V membranes exposed to D plasma show surface exfoliation.