Developing Experimental Capabilities to Isolate and Characterise Individual Hydrogen-Isotope Trapping Sites in Irradiated Fusion-Relevant Ceramic Materials

Achieving a better understanding of how irradiation damage and its evolution in ceramic materials affects interactions with hydrogen isotopes is a clear research priority for the global fusion community. However, to collect the experimental data necessary to advance knowledge in this area, the ability to characterise individual defects using complementary advanced characterisation techniques must be better developed. Two key technqiues here are transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which offers detailed structural information, whilst atom probe tomograhpy (APT) yields 3D near-atomic scale compositional information about the local environment around specifc defects.

This project seeks a student who will develop experimental capabilities and expertise to reliably target specific trap sites (e.g. grain boundaries and irradiation-induced defects) in ceramics proposed for use as tritium barrier coatings (Y₂O₃, Er₂O₃ and Al₂O₃). This development work will necessitate the use of complementary characterisation techniques including focused ion beam (FIB), transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) alongside TEM and APT. Progress combining all such methods will subsequently be utilised to study hydrogen isotope trapping behaviour of specific trap sites in irradiated ceramics. The project will capitalise on the expertise and unique facilities at the University of Oxford, including a Cameca LEAP5000XR instument uniqely dedicated to handle irradiated materials, alongside active-FIB facilities at the Materials Research Facility (MRF), UKAEA (Culham).

Project will be co-supervised by Dr. Benjamin Jenkins & Dr. Hazel Gardner (UKAEA)

NB: Expected funding arrangements for this project are currently being finalised.