In situ Raman monitoring of He2+ irradiation induced damage in a UO2 ceramic

The in situ Raman probing of a UO2 ceramic in [Ar/H-2, 95/5] gas atmosphere followed by exposure to He2+ ionic irradiation coming from a cyclotron accelerator was implemented. It was observed that the growth of Raman defect bands exhibits a unique kinetic nicely modelized by a simple direct impact model, and with an annealing rate constant of 5.6 x 10(-4) +/- 4 x 10(-5) s(-1) for an ionic flow of 50 nA and an ions-beam induced sample heating of 170 +/- 10 degrees C. Also, it was observed that the Ar plasma induced by the ions-beam is a sensitive probe of the presence of the ions-beam. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.