Quantitative deuterium analysis of titanium samples in ultraviolet laser-induced low-pressure helium plasma.

An experimental study of ultraviolet (UV) laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) on Ti samples with low-pressure surrounding He gas has been carried out to demonstrate its applicability to quantitative micro-analysis of deuterium impurities in titanium without the spectral interference from the ubiquitous surface water. This was achieved by adopting the optimal experimental condition ascertained in this study, which is specified by 5 mJ laser energy, 10 Torr helium pressure, and 1-50 mus measurement window, which resulted in consistent D emission enhancement and effective elimination of spectral interference from surface water. As a result, a linear calibration line exhibiting a zero intercept was obtained from Ti samples doped with various D impurity concentrations. An additional measurement also yielded a detection limit of about 40 ppm for D impurity, well below the acceptable threshold of damaging H concentration in Ti and its alloys. Each of these measurements was found to produce a crater size of only 25 mum in diameter, and they may therefore qualify as nondestructive measurements. The result of this study has therefore paved the way for conducting further experiments with hydrogen-doped Ti samples and the technical implementation of quantitative micro-analysis of detrimental hydrogen impurity in Ti metal and its alloys, which is the ultimate goal of this study.