Materials characterization of irradiated spectralon from the NIF target chamber

The Near Backscatter Imager (NBI) participates in nearly every kind of experiment conducted at NIF and measures backscatter, the result of the interaction between incident laser light and plasma waves at a target. Large Spectralon plates, on the order of a hundreds of mm per side, are used as Lambertian scatter components for the NBI diagnostics. The plates were deployed in 2009 and replaced in April of 2014. All NBI assemblies suffered reflectivity degradation, and some of these changes were spatially localized defects observed after irradiation to a cumulative combined neutron and Υ dose of 0.038 Gy. The growth of a defect was correlated to the combined cumulative neutron and Υ radiation dose from NIF fusion shots. Spectralon plates that were irradiated to cumulative combined neutron and Υ dose of 0.74 Gy were characterized for materials and mechanical changes with the following techniques: RBS, FTIR, XPS, SEM, EDX and tensile tests. These tests indicate that the bulk Spectralon did not measurably degrade but there are discolorations that affect the reflectivity. Surface analysis indicates that the surface CF 2 species re-forms to make various organic and CF x species.