AbstractThe sputtering of a number of materials due to an intense polyenergetic flux of hydrogen particles has been investigated. The irradiation of pure tungsten, copper, aluminium, titanium, aluminium–lithium alloys, stainless steel and tungsten–copper composition has been carried out at particle flux densities of 1017–1018 cm−2 s−1 and at fluences of 1020–1022 cm−2. Furthermore, W–Cu composition has been subjected to the effect of high-current plasma pulses for simulating the disruption heat loads in a thermonuclear reactor.