Evidence for the importance of radial transport in plasma detachment in the Nagoya University Divertor Simulator (NAGDIS-II)

Measurements of ion and electron temperatures have been performed in detaching helium–hydrogen plasmas in a linear divertor simulator experiment using spectroscopy, a Langmuir probe, and an omegatron mass spectrometer. Detachment in these plasmas is characterized by a significant (≈20×) reduction in the central plasma flux at the target plate as the target region neutral pressure is increased from 2 to 12 mTorr. The data indicate that partially detached gas-target plasmas consist of a hot (Te≈5 eV) core region along the axis of the plasma column, surrounded by a cold (Te≈0.1 eV) halo region of recombining plasma. At Te=5 eV, plasma recombination is negligible compared with ionization; these experiments therefore provide evidence that detachment is primarily caused by radial transport and by a gradual drop in the ionization source as the temperature of the core region drops below 5 eV.