Atomic origins of solid helium bubbles in tungsten

Solid helium bubbles were directly observed in the helium ion implanted tungsten (W), by different transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques at room temperature. The diameters of these solid helium bubbles range from 1 nm to 8 nm in diameter with the mean bubble size about 3 nm. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) images revealed that solid helium bubbles possess body-centered cubic (bcc) structure with a lattice constant of 0.447 nm. High-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) images further confirmed the existence of helium bubble in tungsten. The present findings provide an atomic level view of the microstructure evolution of helium in the materials, and revealed the existence of solid helium bubbles in materials.