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Capture by aerogel—characterization of mobile dust in tokamak scrape-off layer plasmas

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S. Ratynskaia1, H. Bergsåker2, B. Emmoth3, A. Litnovsky4, A. Kreter4 and V. Philipps4

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The aim of this letter is to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the novel in situ dust diagnostic method—capture by aerogel targets. Aerogel, a highly porous material with a density of a few tens of kg m−3, allows capturing of dust particles present during the discharge without destroying them. The first exposures in the TEXTOR scrape-off layer plasma showed that such targets are able to capture both slow and fast particles with sizes in the range from submicrometre to ~100 µm. The technique provides information on dust velocity and size distribution as well as dust flux estimates. The composition and texture of the captured dust can also be studied in detail to shed light on dust formation processes.


PACS

52.27.Lw Dusty or complex plasmas; plasma crystals

52.70.-m Plasma diagnostic techniques and instrumentation

52.55.Fa Tokamaks, spherical tokamaks

82.70.Gg Gels and sols

52.40.Hf Plasma-material interactions; boundary layer effects

28.52.-s Fusion reactors

Subjects

Soft matter, liquids and polymers

Nuclear physics

Instrumentation and measurement

Plasma physics

Chemical physics and physical chemistry

Dates

Issue 12 (December 2009)

Received 6 June 2009, accepted for publication 12 October 2009

Published 26 October 2009



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