Evaluation of axial decay length of plasma pressure in detached plasma

Abstract

This study proposes a method for evaluating the axial decay length of the plasma pressure in detached helium plasmas with a fixed-point laser Thomson scattering and spectroscopic measurements in the linear divertor plasma simulator NAGDIS-II. By controlling the neutral gas pressure, the highly volume-recombining region called the “recombination front” was moved along the magnetic field. The differential terms for the electron pressure and the recombination-front position with respect to the neutral pressure were obtained. By using these two terms, the decay length of the plasma pressure was qualitatively calculated. In addition, from the movable Langmuir probe measurement, difference between the locally estimated decay length around the recombination front and the decay lengths over a wide axial range was discussed. The proposed method can be applied even in the huge heat flux condition where direct-contact measurements such as the Langmuir probe are not available.

Keywords

• Detached plasma
• Decay length
• Laser Thomson scattering
• Passive spectroscopy
• Recombination front
• NAGDIS-II