In-situ TEM investigation of recovery mechanisms in ion-irradiated ITER-grade tungsten

The annealing of irradiation defects in tungsten was investigated under in-situ observations conducted using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). ITER-specification tungsten was exposed to heavy-ion irradiation by 10 MeV Au+ ions to 0.5 and 1 dpa at room temperature to generate defects. Subsequently, the thermal stability and recovery mechanisms of the generated defects are investigated by in-situ TEM at 600 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C and 1000 °C. The obtained TEM data are used to visualize and quantify the defect characteristics such as loops and voids as well as for observing the evolution of the microstructure and defect diffusion/recovery mechanisms. Focus is made on specific spatial phenomena such as loop-loop interaction, loop-dislocation and loop-grain boundary decoration, loop pinning, entanglement, formation of raft and transformation of loops into a dislocation network. The obtained results are in line with earlier obtained data for pure recrystallized tungsten, still, present results provide important information such as radiation-induced defect characteristics and recovery mechanisms under high temperature for the ITER-specification tungsten.