Profile measurements of helium implanted in UO₂ sintered pellets by using the ³He(d, α)¹H nuclear reaction analysis technique

Profiling of ³He implanted in sintered uranium dioxide pellets was performed using ³He(d, α)¹H Nuclear Reaction Analysis technique. To accurate profile measurements, the cross-section of the ³He(d,p)⁴He nuclear reaction was carefully measured with a relative standard deviation of 5%. The total cross-section represented by a fit function is compared with data from literature. With the described coincidence arrangement, we obtained a reduction by a factor ≈4 × 10⁴ of the signal of deuterons elastically scattered in uranium and a total suppression of parasite signals in the region of helium profiling. This technique enables us to measure helium profile in UO₂ a couple of microns below the surface with a resolution of 0.1 μm and a detection limit of 0.01 at.%.