Thin uranium dioxide films with embedded xenon

The ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) method was applied as a means to incorporate Xe atoms into UO2 films to fabricate reference samples that are representative of an irradiated nuclear fuel without an actual reactor irradiation. The characterization of Xe content and the films microstructure was performed using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). A set of UO2 films with excellent control of Xe content ranging from ∼1.0 to 4.0 at.% was fabricated. The thin UO2〈Xe〉 films deposited on single crystalline 4H–SiC substrates were found to be composed primarily of randomly oriented nanocrystalline grains and a small fraction of amorphous material. TEM analysis detected no Xe-filled bubbles at a scale of 2.5 nm or larger.