Diffusion of Inert Gases in Copper

The ion bombardment technique was used to study inert gas diffusion in polycrystalline copper. Radioactive single charged ions of krypton and xenon were implanted in copper at energies between 20 and 450 keV. The ion‐doped specimens were thermally annealed, and the influence on gas release of implanted ions, implantation energy, and dose was investigated. A new chemical sectioning technique was used to measure the integral distribution of the implanted ions before and after thermal annealing. By correlating the measurements of fractional gas release with those of diffusion profiles, it was possible to obtain a model for inert gas diffusion in copper.