Thermal desorption measurements of helium ion‐implanted erbium tritide

In an attempt to simulate aging tritides, samples of Er3H1.8 were implanted with 4He shortly after being loaded with tritium. Two implant schedules were used which were designed to give uniform implants of 0.13 4He/Er and 0.20 4He/Er. After approximately 150 days, the 3He from the decayed tritium and the 4He were desorbed by thermal ramping from room temperature to 1200 K. The concentration of 3He before desorption was 0.044 3He/Er. The results are compared with similar experiments performed on aged erbium tritides in which the 3He/Er was ? 0.31. In the case of the ion‐implanted samples, more than 99% of the desorbed helium is contained in a peak at 1130 K, whereas for the aged samples, two large desorption peaks are seen at 400 and 1100 K.