Determination of the activation energy of ion-implanted deuterium gas liberation from stainless steel

Trapping and retention of ion-implanted hydrogen in metals is crucial in the interaction of a hydrogen plasma with thermonuclear reactor wall material. One of the main parameters characterizing the retention is the activation energy of gas liberation. This paper presents a method for testing and determining the activation energy of the thermal desorption of deuterium from 12Kh18N10T steel and also proposes a mathematical procedure for assessing the accuracy of the test results. Their procedure allows not only the calculation of the activation energy without introducing a priori unknown preexponential factors but also the universal calculation of the activation energy when the gas liberation is limited by desorption or diffusion of the first or second order.