N. Wikström, M. Giamouridou, E. Charatsidou, P. Olsson, J. Oscarsson, D. Primetzhofer, R.J.W. Frost

Abstract:

The diffusion of two volatile fission products, xenon (Xe) and krypton (Kr), in zirconia (ZrO) is investigated. Samples of Yttria (YO)-stabilised tetragonal ZrO were implanted with either Xe or Kr, at 300 keV, with a fluence of 10¹⁷ at./cm, and subsequently analysed with time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-ERDA) to obtain elemental composition depth profiles. Samples were then annealed at 1200 °C for 9 h, and the effect of the annealing was assessed by ToF-ERDA measurements. From these measurements, first-order approximations of diffusion coefficients for Xe and Kr in ZrO were derived, using a model based on Fick’s second law, these being  m/s and  m/s at 1200 °C for Kr and Xe respectively. It was shown that ToF-ERDA can provide data to analyse the diffusion of elements in solid sample matrices and that a model based on Fick’s Law can predict the diffusion of the implanted ions.

Link to publication: https://doi-org.focus.lib.kth.se/10.1016/j.nimb.2025.165773