The study of plasma–TiN interaction in Tokamak

Abstract

The main goal of this research was to study the physical properties of Titanium Nitride (TiN) when it is exposed to the plasma of Tokamak. For this purpose, TiN was deposited on stainless steel 316L (TiN/S.S.316L) via the DC magnetron sputtering method and annealed at three different temperatures (500 °C, 600 °C and 700 °C). It was then exposed to 300 shots of hydrogen plasma from the IR–T1 Tokamak. To investigate the effect of plasma shots on the structural and morphological properties of the deposited TiN, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were applied. Based on the XRD pattern, no observable changes in the position and intensity of XRD peaks before and after plasma shots were found. A comparison of the SEM images of the TiN/S.S.316L and S.S.316L samples showed that the coated sample, which was annealed at 700 °C, did not have a significant morphology defect against plasma shots, while S.S.316L was damaged as a result of the plasma particle collisions. A study of the reflection spectra, which was done using a UV–VIS spectrophotometer, showed that TiN/S.S.316L has the highest level of reflection. The AFM image of TiN/S.S.316L showed the lowest level of evolution in surface roughness.