Micro ion beam analysis for the erosion of beryllium marker tiles in a tokamak limiter

Beryllium limiter marker tiles were exposed to plasma in the Joint European Torus to diagnose the erosion of main chamber wall materials. A limiter marker tile consists of a beryllium coating layer (7–9 μm) on the top of bulk beryllium, with a nickel interlayer (2–3 μm) between them. The thickness variation of the beryllium coating layer, after exposure to plasma, could indicate the erosion measured by ion beam analysis with backscattering spectrometry. However, interpretations from broad beam backscattering spectra were limited by the non-uniform surface structures. Therefore, micro-ion beam analysis (μ-IBA) with 3 MeV proton beam for Elastic backscattering spectrometry (EBS) and PIXE was used to scan samples. The spot size was in the range of 3–10 μm. Scanned areas were analysed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well. Combining results from μ-IBA and SEM, we obtained local spectra from carefully chosen areas on which the surface structures were relatively uniform. Local spectra suggested that the scanned area (≈600 μm × 1200 μm) contained regions with serious erosion with only 2–3 μm coating beryllium left, regions with intact marker tile, and droplets with 90% beryllium. The nonuniform erosion, droplets mainly formed by beryllium, and the possible mixture of beryllium and nickel were the major reasons that confused interpretation from broad beam EBS.