Indentation Testing on 3 MeV Proton Irradiated Tungsten

Tungsten samples have been irradiated with 3 MeV protons with dose rates of 1×10-04 to 5×10-05 dpa/s to doses of 0.01–0.67 dpa at 360 K in a pilot experiment. Micro- and macro-indentation were used to measure irradiation hardening in the samples. An initial irradiation hardening of 1.23 ± 0.09 GPa and 1.88 ± 0.83 GPa was measured by micro and macro indentation. The irradiation hardening was observed to saturate at 0.03 dpa damage. Dislocation loops were identified using TEM suggesting an increasing loop size with dose.