Sustainable fusion power is within reach; however, more research is needed in the field of material science and engineering. One critical component of a fusion reactor is the plasma facing material. Very little literature exists on the sustainability of tungsten as a plasma facing material (PFM). During operation, PFM must withstand harsh conditions with combined effects from high temperature, mechanical stress, irradiation, transmutation, and the production of hydrogen (H) and helium (He) from nuclear reactions. Therefore, this thesis will focus on co-implantation of H and He into tungsten to investigate the mechanical and microstructural material response. For the first part of this study, Molecular Dynamics (MD) was used to qualitatively understand defect migration and mechanical property changes in tungsten. A Brinell hardness test was simulated using MD in tungsten to study the dependence on void size and void density hardness. It was found that hardness changes vary as the square root of the void size and void density. Also the movement of dislocations and its interaction with voids were investigated. For the second part of the study, H and He were co-implanted into tungsten to look at the mechanical and microstructural changes. Hardness changes were measured using a nano-indenter ex-situ on post-irradiated specimen. Results show that the hardness of tungsten after co-implantation is proportional to the square root of the fluence. Additionally, the microstructure of irradiated tungsten samples was investigated by using a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). It was observed that the defect microstructure in tungsten, after co-implantation, is quite complex, with a number of intriguing features, such as the presence of the nano-bubbles and dislocation loops. Also it was observed that there was an effect that H has on the nucleation of He nano-bubbles. The results from this work suggest that the effect of co-implanting H and He into tungsten is crucial to fully understand its viability as a PFM.

<p>To achieving successfully commercial nuclear fusion energy, fully understanding of the interaction between plasma particles and plasma facing components is one of the essential issues. Tungsten, due to good thermal and mechanical properties such as high thermal conductivity and melting temperature, is one of the most promising candidates. However, the plasma facing components interacting with the extreme environmental conditions such as high temperature and radiation may lead to nanostructure formation, sputtering and erosion that will lead to material degradation. And these deformations may influence not only properties of plasma facing components but also might affect the plasma itself. For example, the contamination of plasma with a few amounts of tungsten, a high Z element, as a result of erosion or sputtering may cause core plasma cooling that results in loss of plasma confinement. Additionally, the retention of hydrogen isotopes, especially tritium, in tungsten is essential issue because of its radioactivity and market value.</p> In this study, deuterium trapping in tungsten is analyzed by molecular dynamics method and the effect of pre-irradiation on trapping is studied. Non-cumulative studies show that the increase in the energy of hydrogen isotopes rises the absorption rate, the initial implantation depth, and the average resting time for initial implantation. Additionally, the effect of implanted deuterium due to pre-irradiation on the hydrogen isotopes trapping is analyzed by combining both cumulative and non-cumulative simulations, and results indicate that while the increase in the pre-irradiation time raises the absorption rate of deuterium with higher energy than 80 eV, it causes a decrease the initial implantation depth and the average resting time for initial implantation because of deuterium-deuterium interactions. Additionally, the deuterium-deuterium interactions may transfer enough energy to implanted deuterium to start a motion which may lead to deeper implantation or escaping from the surface of tungsten. The escaping from surface as a result of deuterium-deuterium interaction could explain the decrease in accumulation rate of deuterium while absorption rate rises.