Dust in Fusion Plasmas (original) (raw)
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Nuclear Fusion, 2001
The formation and release of particle agglomerates, i.e. debris and dusty objects, from plasma facing components and the impact of such materials on plasma operation in controlled fusion devices has been studied in the Extrap T2 reversed field pinch and the TEXTOR tokamak. Several plasma diagnostic techniques, camera observations and surface analysis methods were applied for in situ and ex situ investigation. The results are discussed in terms of processes that are decisive for dust transfer: localized power deposition connected with wall locked modes causing emission of carbon granules, brittle destruction of graphite and detachment of thick flaking co-deposited layers. The consequences for large next step devices are also addressed.
Dusty plasmas: synthesis, structure and dynamics of a dust cloud in a plasma
The European Physical Journal Applied Physics, 2010
Plasmas are energetic media that can give birth to dust particles due to the presence of reactive gases or plasma-surface interactions. Industrial plasmas are often concerned by these dust particles that can be either unwanted or useful for the process. For fusion plasmas, production of dust particles from wall erosion is a serious issue for performance and safety reasons. In this article, some aspects of dusty plasmas with potential implications for plasma experimenters will be discussed. Convenient ways for detecting the presence or the growth of dust particles will be presented. The spatial distribution of the dust cloud during the plasma phase determines the subsequent dust particle deposition. It will be shown that some reactor regions can attract or repeal these dust particles. Finally, the dust particle dynamics after the plasma extinction will be investigated. A special attention will be paid on the residual electric charge that can stay attached on the dust particle surface and on its implications for dust particle control or deposition.
Modeling of dust-particle behavior for different materials in plasmas
Physics of Plasmas, 2007
The behavior of dust particles made of different fusion-related materials ͑Li, Be, B, C, Fe, Mo, or W͒ in tokamak plasmas is simulated using the dust transport code DUSTT ͓A. Pigarov et al., Phys. Plasmas 12, 122508 ͑2005͔͒. The dependencies of the characteristic lifetime of dust particles on plasma parameters are compared for the different dust materials. The dynamics of dust particles in the tokamak edge plasma is studied and the effects of dust material on the acceleration, heating, and evaporation/sublimation of particles are analyzed.
Ablation of high-Z material dust grains in edge plasmas of magnetic fusion devices
Physics of Plasmas, 2014
The model including shielding effects of high-Z dust grain ablation in tokamak edge plasma is presented. In a contrast to shielding models, developed for pellets ablation in a hot plasma core, this model deals with the dust grain ablation in relatively cold edge plasma. Using some simplifications, a closed set of equations determining the grain ablation rate ! is derived and analyzed both analytically and numerically. The scaling law for ! versus grain radius and ambient plasma parameters is obtained and confirmed by the results of numerical solutions. The results obtained are compared with both dust grain models containing no shielding effects and the pellet ablation models.
Physical aspects of dust–plasma interactions
Contributions to Plasma Physics, 2021
Low-pressure gas discharge plasmas are known to be strongly affected by the presence of small dust particles. This issue plays a role in the investigations of dust particle-forming plasmas, where the dust-induced instabilities may affect the properties of synthesized dust particles. Also, gas discharges with large amounts of microparticles are used in microgravity experiments, where strongly coupled subsystems of charged microparticles represent particle-resolved models of liquids and solids. In this field, deep understanding of dust-plasma interactions is required to construct the discharge configurations which would be able to model the desired generic condensed matter physics as well as, in the interpretation of experiments, to distinguish the plasma phenomena from the generic condensed matter physics phenomena. In this review, we address only physical aspects of dust-plasma interactions, that is, we always imply constant chemical composition of the plasma as well as constant size of the dust particles. We also restrict the review to two discharge types: dc discharge and capacitively coupled rf discharge. We describe the experimental methods used in the investigations of dust-plasma interactions and show the approaches to numerical modelling of the gas discharge plasmas with large amounts of dust. Starting from the basic physical principles governing the dust-plasma interactions, we discuss the state-of-the-art understanding of such complicated, discharge-type-specific phenomena as dust-induced stratification and transverse instability in a dc discharge or void formation and heartbeat instability in an rf discharge.
Dust in Flowing Magnetized Plasma
2009
Plasma flows occur in almost every laboratory device and interactions of flowing plasmas with near-wall impurities and/or dust significantly affects the efficiency and lifetime of such devices. The charged dust inside the magnetized flowing plasma moves primarily under the influence of the plasma drag and electric forces. Here, the charge on the dust, plasma potential, and plasma density are calculated self-consistently. The electrons are assumed non-Boltzmannian and the effect of electron magnetization and electron-atom collisions on the dust charge is calculated in a self-consistent fashion. For various plasma magnetization parameters viz. the ratio of the electron and ion cyclotron frequencies to their respective collision frequencies, plasma-atom and ionization frequencies, the evolution of the plasma potential and density in the flow region is investigated. The variation of the dust charge profile is shown to be a sensitive function of plasma parameters.
Discharging of dust particles in the afterglow of plasma with large dust density
Physical Review E, 2013
The discharging of dust particles in the afterglow of plasma with large dust density is studied. We used measured electron and metastable dependencies to calculate the rate describing collection of electrons by dust particles by solving the electron balance equation. This rate is compared with the rate calculated using the orbital motion limited (OML) theory. It is found that the OML theory may not be applied for description of dust charging at large afterglow times, and the energetic electrons generated in metastable-metastable collisions significantly affect charging of dust particles. The time dependence for dust charge is calculated by two different approaches: first, the "standard" approach is used, which assumes that ion and electron fluxes to the dust particles are different in the afterglow. Second, the dust charge is calculated by assuming that desorption of electrons from dust particles is very fast. Both approaches gave similar results for dust charging. In addition, the effects of secondary emission due to ion-dust and metastable-dust collisions on dust discharging are investigated. The main source of dust charging in the late afterglow of plasma with large dust density are the energetic electrons generated in Ar m metastable-metastable collisions.