Palladium erosion behavior under low/high local hydrogen recycling in steady state plasmas

Abstract

Sputtering experiments were carried out in steady state plasma of a mirror Penning discharge with cathodes made from hydrogen saturated/non-saturated palladium. For the both cases no difference in erosion behavior was found under hydrogen, helium or nitrogen plasma impact, in contrast to observed earlier erosion behavior of deuterium saturated/non-saturated lithium. Possible reasons are suggested and discussed to explain such erosion behavior.