Combined effects of crystallography, heat treatment and surface polishing on blistering in tungsten exposed to high-flux deuterium plasma

For tungsten exposed to low-energy hydrogen-plasmas, it has been thought that grains with surface normal are most susceptible to blistering while those with surface normal are virtually impervious to it. Here, we report results showing that non-uniformity of blister distribution depends on the state of the surface due to polishing. In electrochemically polished material blisters appear on the grains with all orientations, while in mechanically polished material blister-free areas associated with particular orientations emerge. On the other hand, blistering is shown to have a strong dependence on the level of deformation within particular grains in partially recrystallized material.