High temperature indentation of helium-implanted tungsten

Nanoindentation has been performed on tungsten, unimplanted and helium-implanted to ~600 appm, at temperatures up to 750 °C. The hardening effect of the damage was 0.90 GPa at 50 °C, but is negligible above 450 °C. The hardness value at a given temperature did not change on re-testing after heating to 750 °C. This suggests that the helium is trapped in small vacancy complexes that are stable to at least 750 °C, but which can be bypassed due to increased dislocation mobility (cross slip or climb) above 450 °C.