Deuterium ion implantation of Eurofer with a new pulsed CD plasma source

A new low energy ion source was developed. ExTEnD (Exposure to Low Energy Deuterium) uses an electrical discharge to create a plasma from which ions can be extracted via a biased sample stage - offering a simple and accessible setup to perform low energy ion exposure for hydrogen retention studies. Careful selection of operating conditions allowed stage current measurements to be used to estimate fluence, whilst the bias applied to the stage dictated the incident ion energy. The design and testing of ExTEnD is presented, alongside a preliminary study in which ion flux incident on Eurofer samples was varied in two ways. Thermal desorption results were broadly in good agreement with a variety of other studies, with three commonly observed desorption peaks present across the samples. The longer exposure time of the lowest flux sample resulted in a notable increase in retained deuterium.