A study of the surface erosion of zircaloy material during laser ablation process by thin layer activation technique

Abstract

Abstract The thin layer activation (TLA) technique was applied to study the surface erosion of zircaloy clad material during laser ablation process by producing a suitable γ-ray emitting radioisotope in the clad surface using 40 MeV α-particles. This paper reports the rate of surface erosion of zircaloy as a function of deposited laser energy in the range of a few hundred of millijoules to a few kilojoule. The minimum detection limit was found to be 80 ± 25 nm in the measurement of surface loss of material due to laser exposure by TLA technique.