Journal of Nuclear Materials 457 (2015) 118–123

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Journal of Nuclear Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jnucmat

XPS investigation of impurities containing boron films affected

by energetic deuterium implantation and thermal desorption
Dadong Shao a,⇑, Jiaxing Li a, Xiaoli Tan a, Zhongshi Yang a, Kenji Okuno b, Yasuhisa Oya b
a
Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031, PR China
b
Radioscience Research Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Shizuoka University, 836 Ohya, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka 422-8529, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Effect of impurities on existing states of boron, carbon and oxygen in boron films were investigated by
Received 6 September 2014 XPS technique. Carbon mainly exists as BACAB bond and BAC bond in 70% B boron films, and BAC bond
Accepted 31 October 2014 and CAC bond in 50% B boron films. The existing state of oxygen depends on impurities composition in
Available online 7 November 2014
70% B and 50% B boron films. D+ implantation and thermal desorption result in the reconstruction of
boron films, which mainly includes the elimination of B2O3, increasing of BAO bond and decreasing of
BAB bond. Implanted D+ into boron films can be trapped by carbon and oxygen, and remits as D2O
and CDx in TDS process. Comparing to carbon, oxygen can be trapped easily by BAB bond and difficult
to remit from boron films.
Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In the present fusion devices, a lot of impurities will be contam-
inated into the fusion devices [1]. Moreover, impurities (such as
COx, H2O, CHxOy) are adsorbed irreversibly and accumulated on
material surfaces at low surface temperatures [2]. The impurities
in fusion devices would induce the loss of plasma energy, and
influence the properties of plasma confinement [1]. However,
impurities widely present with deuterium and tritium [3], the fuel
of future fusion reactor, and are unavoidable even in the samples of
high purity [4]. For the steady state operations of fusion devices, it
is important to keep the impurities low in fusion devices [5]. In
order to achieve effective reduction of impurities, plasma facing
first wall conditioning has been widely applied and plays an
important role in fusion devices to reduce the impurities in plasma
first wall materials [1,6,7].
Boronization is widely recognized and applied as one of the
most effective techniques to suppress the impurities from plasma
first wall materials [6–13] because the major impurities in fusion
devices (such as Tokamak) are thought to be carbon and/or oxygen
[13,14], and boron can easily bound to various impurities and helps
to keep impurities at low concentration [5,15]. Moreover, it is
widely recognized that oxygen and carbon are the major impurities
in the in-situ boronization process in present fusion devices and
future reactors [16], which will be contained in the boron films
coated on the first wall [5,13], and difficult to be removed [16]. It
is unavoidable that the enrichment effect of boron films for impu-
rities will be lost after a certain operation time due to the satura-
tion of impurities [17–19].
From the point of steady state operations of future fusion
device, it is important to evaluate the trapping ability of boron
films for carbon and oxygen impurities, and the relative exiting
states of boron, carbon and oxygen in impurities containing boron
films. However, to our best knowledge, few researchers have ever
seriously evaluated it. Furthermore, impurities containing boron
films will be exposed to energy hydrogen isotopes during plasma
operation process. It is also important to study the effect of
hydrogen isotopes on the chemical existing states of impurities
in boron films. The related reaction processes of hydrogen isotopes
in boron films can be described as implantation process and
thermal desorption process. Herein, we studied and compared
the chemical existing states of boron, carbon and oxygen in boron
films after preheating, D+ implantation and thermal desorption.
The as-received boron films were not studied because the fusion
devices usually preheated for a long time to remove impurities
as far as possible before operation.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 551 65593308; fax: +86 551 65593310. The carbon and oxygen containing boron films were prepared
E-mail addresses: shaodadong@126.com (D. Shao), lijx@ipp.ac.cn (J. Li), by plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (p-CVD) technique
srkokun@ipc.shizuoka.ac.jp (K. Okuno), syoya@ipc.shizuoka.ac.jp (Y. Oya). on Si substrate using the p-CVD apparatus at Shizuoka University.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2014.10.097
0022-3115/Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 D. Shao et al. / Journal of Nuclear Materials 457 (2015) 118–123 119

Before preparation, the p-CVD chamber was cleaned up by using
He plasma discharge at 673 K and 2.5  10 2 Pa for 30 min with
a He flow rate of 3.8 sccm. After He plasma cleaning process, boron
deposition was performed for 1 h by p-CVD technique to prepare
carbon and oxygen containing boron films on Si substrates with
a size of 10  10  1.0 mm. B10H14 and He were introduced into
the p-CVD chamber at the rates of 2.5 sccm and 3.8 sccm, respec-
tively. In addition, CH4 and O2 were introduced simultaneously
into the p-CVD chamber as the sources of carbon and oxygen,
respectively. By changing the flow rates of CH4 and O2, the boron
films with different carbon and oxygen concentrations were pre-
pared (Table 1). During plasma discharge process, the temperature
of substrate and pressure of p-CVD chamber were kept at 673 K
and 2.5  10 2 Pa, respectively.
After boron deposition process, the boron films were heated and
held at 1173 K [20] for 10 min with a heating rate of 0.5 K s 1 in a
thermal desorption chamber to remove residual hydrogen and the
possible adsorbed impurities in boron films formed in the boron
deposition process and/or adsorbed from air moisture. The thermal
desorption chamber was evacuated by using a turbo molecular
pump to less than 10 6 Pa. Thereafter, D+ implantation was per-
formed on the boron films at room temperature with an energy
of 1.0 keV, an ion flux of 1.0  1018 D+ m 2 s 1, and an ion fluence
of 1.0  1022 D+ m 2, respectively. The deuterium was used as a
representative of hydrogen isotopes because deuterium would be
one of the fuels of future fusion reactor [3]. After D+ implantation,
the boron films were heated and held at 1173 K for 10 min with a
heating rate of 0.5 K s 1 in a thermal desorption chamber to study
the chemical existing states of boron, carbon and oxygen in boron
films after thermal desorption.
2.2. Characterization
The boron films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS) technique. The XPS measurements were per-
formed with an ESCA1600 surface microanalysis system (ULVAC-
PHI Inc.) equipped with a Mg Ka 400 W X-ray source (1253.6 eV)
and a hemispherical electron analyzer. The background pressure
and analyzed area was 10 8 Pa and 0.72  0.72 mm, respectively.
The surface charging effects were corrected with C 1s peak at
284.6 eV as a reference. In experiments, we found that the two rep-
resentative binding energies for Si, namely 100 eV (Si 2p) and
151 eV (Si 2s), cannot be observed, indicating that the boron films
formed on the Si surface, and Si substrate effect can be neglected.
3. Results and discussions
XPS spectrum is sensitive to the chemical environments of
materials, which is an effective technique to identify and analyze
the change of chemical existing states of materials. As for B 1s
spectrum, it is reasonable that boron atoms are bound to each
other and build up the network of boron films. Many researchers
[15,21–23] have reported that BAB bond as pure boron, BAC bond
as boron carbide, and BAO bond as boron oxide were located at
188 eV, 189 eV and 190 eV, respectively. Jacobsohn et al. [24] and
Lyu et al. [25] finely divided BAO bond into BC2O and BCO2 at
190.0 and 192.0 eV. They also observed B2O3 bond at 193.2 eV. In
this paper, the BAO bond includes the existing states of BC2O
and BCO2, and the B 1s spectra are deconvoluted into BAB bond
(187.8 ± 0.2 eV), BAC bond (189.0 ± 0.2 eV), BAO bond (190.0–
192.0 eV), and B2O3 bond (193.2 ± 0.2 eV), respectively.
In the case of C 1s spectra, the peaks at 287.6 ± 0.2 eV and
288.8 ± 0.2 eV, corresponding to the species of AC@O bond (e.g.,
ketone, aldehyde) and ACOO bond (e.g., carboxylic, ester) can
be only found for as-received boron films, indicating that the pre-
heating treatment can effectively remove CO2 formed during the
boron deposition process and/or adsorbed from air moisture. It
was clear that the C 1s XPS spectra of boron films consisted of four
chemical states, namely BACAB bond, BAC bond, CAC bond and
CAO bond located at 281.8 ± 0.2 eV, 283.0 ± 0.2 eV, 284.5 ± 0.2 eV
and 286.3 ± 0.2 eV, respectively [26]. The O 1s spectra of boron
films showed evidence of three chemical states at 531.5 ± 0.2 eV,
532.3 ± 0.2 eV and 533.2 ± 0.2 eV, which can be assigned to CAO
bond, OAO bond and BAO bond [15], respectively.
Buzhinskij and Semenets [19] reported that the oxygen retained
in boron–carbon compositions was existed in the form of nonvol-
atile boron oxides (i.e. BO, BO2, B2O2 and B2O3), BACAO complexes
and physically trapped CO and O2. Ennaceur and Terreault [27]
considered that the saturation concentration of oxygen in boron
films could not achieve to stoichiometric B2O3 level (related impu-
rities concentration is 60 at.%). In order to estimate the saturation
limitation of carbon and oxygen in boron films, the flow rates of
CH4 and O2 during boron deposition process were increased, and
70 at.% of carbon and oxygen in boron films was achieved. Never-
theless, the concentrations of carbon and oxygen in boron films
after D+ implantation-thermal desorption were reduced to 
50 at.%, suggesting that 50 at.% of carbon and oxygen closed to
its saturation concentration in boron films. Ashikawa et al. [22]
observed a high BAO bond concentration of 90% (related oxygen
concentration was 45 at.%) in JT-60U after long-term operations,
and they considered 45 at.% is the saturation trapping capacity of
boron films for oxygen. In this paper, we select the boron films con-
taining 50 at.% B and 50 at.% impurities (denoted as 50% B boron
films) as the representative of boron films with a high impurities
concentration, and the boron films containing 70 at.% B and
30 at.% impurities (denoted as 70% B boron films) as the repre-
sentative of boron films with a low impurities concentration.
3.1. Boron films after preheating

Table 1 It is acceptable that the concentration of impurities in boron

Chemical compositions of boron films. films is escalated during operations of fusion devices. Firstly, we
studied the relationship of carbon and oxygen compositions on
Sample no. Chemical compositions (at.%)
the chemical existing states of boron, carbon and oxygen in 70%
B C O
B boron films after preheating. According to the B 1s spectra of
70% B 70B–15C 70.1 14.7 15.2 70% B boron films after preheating (Fig. 1A and C), BAB bond is
70B–20C 70.0 19.7 10.3 the predominant existing state of boron and B2O3 bond cannot
70B–22C 70.0 22.2 7.8
70B–24C 70.1 24.1 5.8
be found due to low concentration of impurities. BAB bond also
70B–26C 69.7 26.2 4.1 slowly decrease with the increasing of carbon concentration and
50% B 50B–19C 50.3 18.7 31.0
the decreasing of oxygen in boron films.
50B–21C 49.5 20.8 29.7 According to the deconvoluted results of C 1s spectra for 70% B
50B–26C 49.9 25.9 24.2 boron films after preheating, carbon mainly exits as BACAB bond
50B–32C 50.3 31.8 17.9 (sp2 hybrid orbital) and BAC bond (sp3 hybrid orbital). The BACAB
50B–40C 49.8 40.0 10.2
bond, means boron rich bond, gradually convert into BAC bond
50B–44C 50.2 44.0 5.8
with the increasing of carbon concentration and the decreasing
120 D. Shao et al. / Journal of Nuclear Materials 457 (2015) 118–123
of oxygen concentration. Kodama et al. [14] also detected BACAB
bond and BAC bond in the boron films with boron to carbon ratio
of 2.5. Moreover, the amounts of CAC and CAO bonds are negligi-
ble, indicating that 70% B boron films can further trap and remove
carbon-containing impurity from fusion devices.
According to the deconvoluted results of O 1s spectra for 70% B
boron films after preheating, about half of the oxygen exists as
OAO bond (i.e. free oxygen) in boron films [15,20]. The increases
of carbon concentration and the decreases of oxygen concentration
result in the slowly decreasing of OAO bond and the slight increas-
ing of BAO bond. It is reasonable that the trapping effect of boron
films for carbon and oxygen atoms gradually decrease with
increasing impurities concentration. Noda et al. [17] reported that
the trapping function of boron films for oxygen lost within a short
time due to the saturation of oxygen atoms at the top surface of
boron films. Meanwhile, the compounds of carbon and oxygen
(such as OAC bond) became to be important species in boron films
at high impurities concentration.
The binding energies of B 1s (Fig. 1B and D), C 1s (Fig. 2B and D),
and O 1s (Fig. 3B and D) for 50% B boron films after preheating dra-
matically decrease with the increasing of carbon concentration to
40 at.%. Ronning et al. [28] also found that the binding energies
of B 1s and C 1s of boron–carbon compositions continuous
decreased with increasing of carbon concentration in boron–car-
bon compositions. The binging energies of B 1s and C 1s shift
toward lower energy side with the further increasing of carbon
concentration, which can be due to the conversion of BAB bond
to BAC bond in B 1s spectra and the conversion of CAC bond and
CAO bond to BAC bond in C 1s spectra, respectively.
Comparing to the existing states of boron, carbon and oxygen in
70% B boron films after preheating, in 50% B boron films after pre-
heating, the amount of BAB bond significantly decrease, and B2O3
bond becomes to be major chemical states of boron; CAC and CAO
bonds becomes to be major chemical states of carbon, and BACAB
bond is neglectable. It can be due to the intense competition for
active boron sites by impurity atoms at high impurities concentra-
tion. Ronning et al. [28] also reported that the BACAB bond
Fig. 1. Chemical existing states of boron in 70% B (A, C) and 50% B (B, D) boron films. The XPS spectra were ranked according to the carbon concentration, which were
increased from top to bottom, i.e. 70B–15C, 70B–20C, 70B–22C, 70B–24C, 70B–26C in Fig. 1A; and 50B–19C, 50B–21C, 50B–26C, 50B–32C, 50B–40C, 50B–44C in Fig. 1B. Fig. 2
and Fig. 3 were ranked in same order.
gradually converted into BAC bond with increasing of carbon con-
centration in boron and carbon compositions, and they attributed
it to the progressive incorporation of carbon atom and boron atom.
It is very interesting that the percent of BAC bond increases and
the percent of CAC bond decreases with the increasing of carbon
concentration in boron films. Meanwhile, CAO bond can be found
only at higher oxygen concentration. It indicates that carbon atoms
tend to bound to boron atoms rather oxygen atoms due to the high
reactivity between the elements. Similar phenomena can also be
found in 50% B boron films after D+ implantation and after thermal
desorption. The high percent of CAC bond at low carbon
concentration (high oxygen concentration) suggests the cluster of
free carbon at low carbon concentration because oxygen atoms
tend to react with boron atoms rather than free carbon atoms
(confirmed by O 1s XPS) [29]. Whereas, the amount and size of
clustered free carbon materials in boron films are limited because
carbon impurities can be effectively trapped by boron films, which
result in the low CAC bond under the conditions of high carbon
concentration and low oxygen concentration.
O 1s spectra further confirm the effect of carbon and oxygen
compositions on the existing states of boron and carbon in 50% B
boron films after preheating. BAO bond is the predominant
existing state of oxygen in 50% B boron films after preheating when
oxygen concentration higher than 22.2 at.%. The increasing of car-
bon concentration and the decreasing of oxygen concentration
results in the decreasing of BAO bond and the increasing of CAO
bond. However, BAO bond is still the primary of boron even when
carbon concentration (such as 32 at.%) is much higher than that
of oxygen. It means that the trapping of oxygen impurities by
boron films from fusion devices is much easier than that of carbon
impurities.
3.2. Boron films after D+ implantation
In order to characterize the effect of D+ implantation and
thermal desorption on boron films in fusion operation process,
the D+ implantation was performed for 70% B and 50% B boron
 D. Shao et al. / Journal of Nuclear Materials 457 (2015) 118–123 121

Fig. 2. Chemical existing states of carbon in 70% B (A, C) and 50% B (B, D) boron films.

Fig. 3. Chemical existing states of oxygen in 70% B (A, C) and 50% B (B, D) boron films.

films. As it is well known, D+ ions can be trapped by boron as
BADAB bridge and BAD terminal bonds, and by carbon and oxygen
as BAOAD and BACAD bonds in the carbon and oxygen containing
boron films [5]. It is reasonable that parts of D+ ions trapped by
impurities can reemit from boron films in the forms of heavy water
(D2O) and hydrocarbons (CDx) [5]. Considering the fact that 70% B
boron films can further effective trap impurities from fusion
devices. It means D+ implantation will cause a serious reaction
and conversion in 70% B boron films. The binding energies of B
1s (Fig. 1A and C), C 1s (Fig. 2A and C), and O 1s (Fig. 3A and C)
for the 70% B boron films is shifted toward lower energy side with
the increasing of carbon concentration caused by D+ implantation,
which means that D+ implantation results in the reconstruction of
70% B boron films. Kikuchi et al. [23] also found that D+ implanta-
tion lead to the reconstruction of carbon containing boron films.
According to the deconvoluted results of B 1s, boron mainly
exists as BAO bond in the 70% B boron films after D+ implantation.
The amounts of BAC and BAB bonds are marked reduced to neg-
lectable level after D+ implantation. It further confirms that the
trapping of oxygen impurities by boron films is much easy than
122 D. Shao et al. / Journal of Nuclear Materials 457 (2015) 118–123
that of carbon impurities. Moreover, D+ implantation also result in
the cluster of free carbon (CAC bond) [29] and significant decrease
and increase of BACAB bond and BAO bond, respectively; and a
notable decreasing of OAO bond and CAO bond at high oxygen
concentration because parts of the reemitted CDx and D2O would
be re-trapped by boron films in the diffusion and reemission pro-
cess. It is reasonable that the existing states of boron, carbon and
oxygen will be varied in the boron films containing more impuri-
ties, because boron bound to more impurities at higher impurities
concentration. However, the diffusion and remission of deuterium
trapped by impurities will be also simultaneously improved.
The existing states of boron, carbon and oxygen in 50% B boron
films after D+ implantation also fairly depend on impurities com-
position because the binging energy of B 1s, C 1s and O 1s spectra
for 50% B boron films after D+ implantation are also dramatically
decrease with the increasing of carbon concentration to 40 at.%.
According to the deconvoluted results of B 1s spectra for, BAC bond
and BAO bond are the major existing states of boron in 50% B
boron films after D+ implantation. BAC bond gradually increase
with the increasing of carbon concentration while BAO bond grad-
ually decrease with the decreasing of oxygen concentration. B2O3
bond and BAB bond, important existing states of boron in 50% B
boron films after preheating (Fig. 1B and D), are neglectable in
50% B boron films after D+ implantation. It means that B2O3 bond
can be reduced by D+ during implantation process [5]. Moreover,
the diffusion and remission of impurities can take place simulta-
neously. The active boron sites caused by the remission of D2O
and CDx will re-trap oxygen and form new BAO bond. The elimina-
tion of B2O3, the increasing of BAO bond and the decreasing of BAB
bond suggest that D+ implantation can result in the reconstruction
of boron films. Moreover, the distribution of boron on Si substrates
is strongly affected by the morphological structure of Si substrates
[30], and the local distribution of heterogeneity is improved at
higher substrate temperature because the migration ability of
formed particulates on Si substrates are enhanced at high temper-
ature [31]. According to the deconvoluted results of C 1s and O 1s
spectra for 50% B boron films after preheating and after D+ implan-
tation, D+ implantation reduces BAC bond and enhances the for-
mation of CAC bond; and decreases of OAO bond at high oxygen
concentration (>18 at.%). Yoshikawa et al. [15] attributed similar
experimental result to the fact that deuterium atoms bound to
CAB bond with the formation of BACAD bond and new CAC bond.
They also found that free oxygen largely decreased after D+ implan-
tation because a large amount of oxygen convert to volatile D2O.
3.3. Boron films after thermal desorption
The deuterium trapped as BAOAD bond and BACAD bond are
decomposed into BAB bond, and volatile materials (i.e. D2O and
CDx) are formed simultaneously in thermal desorption process. It
is reasonable that parts of the formed D2O and CDx will be re-
trapped by boron films during diffusion in the thermal desorption
process, which also result in the reconstruction of boron films. The
binding energy of B 1s spectra (Fig. 1A and C), C 1s spectra (Fig. 2A
and C), and O 1s spectra (Fig. 3A and C) of 70% B boron films after
thermal desorption are dramatically decrease with the increasing
of carbon concentration. According to the deconvoluted results of
B 1s spectra for 70% B boron films, most of BAB bond convert to
BAO bond during the D+ implantation and thermal desorption pro-
cess, which is further confirmed by O 1s spectra at high oxygen
concentration. It reveals that a number of formed D2O can be
trapped by active boron sites in the boron films with a low
impurities concentration in D2O remission and diffusion process.
However, the dramatically increasing of BAB bond and BAC bond
caused by thermal desorption is an unimportant existing state of
boron at high carbon concentration. It means that the formed
CDx cannot be effectively re-trapped by the abundant active boron
sites in the boron films with a low impurities concentration, and
most of the formed CDx remits from boron films.
According to the deconvoluted results of C 1s spectra for 70% B
boron films after D+ implantation and after thermal desorption, a
notable CAC bond converts into CABAC bond after thermal
desorption because the deuterium trapped by CAC bond
de-trapped quickly with forming CDx in the thermal desorption
process [15] and the formed CDx can re-trapped by the abundant
BAB bond. Moreover, as can be seen from Fig. 2A and D, the
deconvoluted results of C 1s spectra for 70% B films after preheat-
ing and after thermal desorption are similar. It means that the
cycle of deuterium ions do not significant change the existing state
of boron in the boron films with a low impurities concentration.
The effect of deuterium ions cycle on the existing states of oxy-
gen in the boron films with a low impurities concentration are
much significant than that of carbon. As can be seen from the
deconvoluted results of O 1s spectra for 70% B boron films after
D+ implantation (Fig. 3) and after thermal desorption (Fig. 3A and
D), thermal desorption result in a observable decrease of OAO
bond and a marked increase of CAO bond. It means free oxygen
can react with CDx and/or free carbon in thermal desorption pro-
cess. Moreover, comparing to the existing states of oxygen in 70%
B boron films after preheating, the OAO bond and CAO bond in
70% B boron films after thermal desorption are also marked
decrease and increase, respectably.
As for the boron films with a higher impurities concentration
(such as 50% B boron films), the trapping capacity of impurities
by boron films will be reduced and the emission of impurities from
boron films will be improved because the active boron sites in
boron films usually decrease with the increasing of impurities con-
centration. As can be seen from Fig. 1B and D, only B 1s spectra
binging energy of 50% B boron films after thermal desorption
shifted toward lower energy side with the increasing of carbon
concentration, and BAO bond are the predominant existing state
of boron until carbon concentration is increased to 36.8 at.%. More-
over, according to the deconvoluted results of B 1s spectra for 50%
B boron films after implantation and after thermal desorption,
thermal desorption results in BAO bond marked decreased at car-
bon concentration >37 at.% and moderately increased at carbon
concentration <37 at.%; and BAC bond notable decreased at carbon
concentration <37 at.%. The improving of BAO bond and the
undetectable of BAB bond at carbon concentration <37 at.% sug-
gests oxygen impurities can effective occupy the active boron sites
provided by the emission of CDx. Nevertheless, carbon impurities
cannot effective occupy the active boron sites provided by the
emission of D2O even at high carbon concentration, which results
in the fact that BAB bond becomes to be an important existing
state of boron at carbon concentration >37 at.% in 50% B boron
films after thermal desorption. It means oxygen impurities has a
significant advantage in the competing for active boron sites.
Moreover, the trapping of carbon impurities by boron films from
fusion devices is much difficult than that of oxygen impurities.
According to the deconvoluted results of C 1s spectra for 50% B
boron films after implantation and after thermal desorption, TDS
result in the increase and decrease of BAC bond and CAC bond,
respectively. It confirms the deconvoluted results of B 1s spectra
for 50% B boron films after D+ implantation and after thermal
desorption. Furthermore, based on the deconvoluted results of C
1s spectra for 50% B boron films after preheating and after thermal
desorption, at high carbon concentration condition, the C 1s spec-
tra of 50% B boron films after thermal desorption similar to that of
after preheating. Whereas, at low carbon concentration condition,
the CAC bond percent of 50% B boron films decrease markedly after
TDS process. It means that just at high carbon concentration condi-
tion, the recycle of deuterium can significant affect the existing
 D. Shao et al. / Journal of Nuclear Materials 457 (2015) 118–123
states of carbon in the boron films with a high impurities
concentration.
The recycle of deuterium affects the existing states of oxygen in
the boron films with a high impurities concentration. According to
the deconvoluted results of O 1s spectra for 50% B boron films after
D+ implantation and after thermal desorption, thermal desorption
results in the quickly increase of CAO bond and the marked
decrease of OAO bond at carbon concentration >35 at.%. It suggests
that free oxygen might react with carbon and forms CAO bond in
thermal desorption process.
4. Conclusion
Boron can trap more impurities at higher impurities concentra-
tion, and B2O3 become a new important existing state of boron in
50% B boron films after preheating. Just after preheating, carbon
mainly exists as BACAB bond and BAC bond in 70% B boron films,
and BAC bond and CAC bond in 50% B boron films; oxygen existing
state is mildly dependent on impurities composition in 70% B
boron films, and highly dependent on impurities composition in
50% B boron films. The implanted D+ into boron films can be
trapped by carbon and oxygen, and remitted as D2O and CDx. The
re-trapped of D2O and CDx results in the reconstruction of boron
films. BAO bond increased and BAB bond can be detected only at
high carbon concentration in the 50% B boron films after implanta-
tion and thermal desorption process suggests oxygen has signifi-
cant advantage than carbon in competing for active boron sites.
In summary, impurities, especially carbon, should be kept as low
as possible in the boron films applied in future fusion devices.
Acknowledgments
Financial support from National Magnetic Confinement
Fusion Science Program (2013GB1100005, 2013GB110004,
2013GB105002), NIFS collaboration program (NIFS07KOBA020,
NIFS10KUHR008), Science Foundation of Institute of Plasma Phys-
ics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (DSJJ–13–YY01), and Center of
Instrumental Analysis at Shizuoka University.
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