Effect of surface orientation on Cu blistering under high fluence H ion irradiation

The combination of hydrogen with metals is a widely extended tandem that provides a number of crucial applications that make our society to advance. In particular, when the metal is copper, which is widely used in the industry and fundamental research in the form of accelerators technology. However, hydrogen induces some undesired effects, such as blistering. This effect modify the surface of copper, altering the vacuum dielectric strength at the surface. Moreover, we find that it is dependent on the crystal orientation of the grains that compound the surface of copper.

In this work, we analyse the mechanisms that lead the formation of blisters by means of computational methods, focusing on different crystallographic orientations. With this model, we provide deep insights in the surface modification when copper is exposed to hydrogen.