A thermal evolution study of the trapping and release of inert gases in nickel

A series of experiments is reported on the trapping and release of the inert gases neon and argon at low energies (<3 keV) in a nickel (111) monocrystal using thermal evolution mass spectrometry. The results of this study and some further experiments performed for comparison purposes using the fight ion helium as the implanted species indicated that the implanted gas distribution and fluence are the parameters which primarily define the form of the observed spectra. The damaging capability of the ion, which is a function of its energy and mass, appears to be of importance only in that it determines the total amount of gas retained in the target after implantation, but does not influence the overall form of the spectra. Several peaks have been observed in the spectra and possible mechanisms to explain these peaks are proposed.