Tritium locked in silica using 248 nm KrF laser irradiation

In this Letter we report on selectively occluding tritium in a silica film on a silicon substrate using a combination of high-pressure tritium loading and 248 nm KrF laser irradiation. Sixty percent of tritium dissolved in the silica film was bonded by laser irradiation. The concentration of the bonded tritium was proportional to the total laser fluence. Tritium effusion experiments indicated that the laser-locked tritium existed stably in the glass matrix up to 400 °C. In this work we point a way to a safe and simple approach for the integration of on-chip radioisotope micropower sources for micromechanical and microelectronic applications