Tungsten is considered as a suitable plasma-facing material candidate for divertor and first-wall systems, capable of tolerating the extreme conditions of high temperature and particle flux inside fusion reactors. However, experiments have shown that helium from linear and tokamak plasma devices is responsible for the formation of a nanostructure with a fuzz-like morphology on the tungsten surface after a few hours of plasma exposure. I am currently working on developing atomistically-informed, continuous-domain model to develop fundamental understanding and predict the early stage of the fuzz-formation on helium-ion-irradiated tungsten surface. Additionally, my research in this group also focuses on building a cluster dynamics reaction-diffusion based rate theory model to predict the size and density evolution of prismatic dislocation loops, as well as the fluxes of defects that partition to network dislocations driving irradiation creep in FeCrAl alloys, the principle candidates for accident tolerant fuel cladding in light water fission reactors. I joined the group as a post-doctoral research associate in May 2016.
Email: DDasgupta@utk.edu