Effect of carbon impurity reduction on hydrogen isotope retention in QUEST high temperature wall

Abstract

The W (tungsten) samples were placed at top, equator and bottom walls of QUEST (Q-shu University Experiment with Steady-State Spherical Tokamak) device and exposed 1238 shots of hydrogen plasma during 2016A/W (Autumn/Winter) campaign with normal wall temperature of 473 K (maximum temperature of 523 K). Thereafter, the surface morphology was evaluated by color measurement, TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) and XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). Thick deposition layers were formed on the samples placed at the equator and bottom walls. On the other hand, thin mixed material layer was deposited on the top wall, where large H (hydrogen) retention was observed, which would be caused by dynamic plasma wall interaction (erosion and deposition) with higher H flux. Low H retention was confirmed for bottom wall, where higher wall temperature without He discharge would contribute. The additional 1 keV D2+ was implanted into these samples and deuterium retention enhancement was estimated. It was clearly found that the irradiation damages would induce more deuterium trapping than the formation of C–D bond.