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Neutral Atoms in Controlled Fusion and Space Plasmas

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A special issue of Atoms (ISSN 2218-2004).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 10460

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pavel Goncharov

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Guest Editor

Advanced Plasma Research Laboratory, Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg 195251, Russia
Interests: plasma physics; mathematical modelling of plasma; diagnostics of high-temperature plasma; atomic and nuclear processes in plasma

Dr. Christian Hill

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Guest Editor

Nuclear Data Section, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Interests: spectroscopy; databases; collisional process in plasmas; nuclear fusion

Dr. Kalle Heinola

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Guest Editor

Nuclear Data Section, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Interests: plasma-material/plasma-wall/plasma-surface interactions; edge plasma physics; atomic and molecular processes in edge plasmas; irradiation-induced damage; core plasma physics; hydrogen processes; multi-scale modelling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Techniques dealing with fluxes of fast suprathermal neutral particles in plasma are at the frontier of controlled fusion research and space exploration. Neutral beam injection (NBI) is currently the main method for heating fusion plasmas in flagship magnetic confinement devices. Neutral particle analysis (NPA) is the most direct method for diagnosing fast ions in a magnetically confined fusion plasma by detecting the escaping neutral atoms formed of these ions due to charge changing atomic reactions. In astrophysics and planetary science, measurements of this kind are typically referred to as energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging or sensing of space plasmas.

NBI systems based on positive ion sources are suitable at beam energies around 150 keV or lower. To produce higher energy beams at 500 keV or above, required for enhancing fusion plasma performance, negative ions are used to maintain an optimum neutralization fraction. NBI at 1 MeV for D⁰ beams based on a negative ion source is one of the basic systems required to reach ITER operation goals [1]. The deuterium NBI is the most powerful heating system at JT-60SA, including both positive ion-source-based injection at 85 keV and negative ion-source-based injection at 500 keV [2].

Numerical modeling of NBI and the related diagnostics certainly require the knowledge of cross-sections of all relevant atomic reactions. It is noted, first, that many of the required cross-sections are not well defined, with uncertainties of over 10%, second, that the lack of experimental data in energy regions of interest necessitates some of cross-sections to be extrapolated, and third, that fewer data are available for explicit deuterium reactions; thus, protium cross sections are used [3].

The main NPA purpose on ITER is to measure the deuterium/tritium fuel isotope ratio in the plasma core using energy distributions of escaping D⁰ and T⁰ atoms in the MeV range [4]. Advanced NPA diagnostics in the MeV energy range were used on JT-60U [5] and are foreseen at JT-60SA [6]. Measurements of kinetic energy resolved fluxes of neutral hydrogen and helium atoms are possible. Thus, cross-section data are required for all the atomic reactions that lead to a change of the electric charge state of hydrogen and helium particles in plasma in the presence of impurities. These reactions determine both the source function of neutral atoms within the plasma and the attenuation of the neutral flux in the plasma between the birth location and the periphery. The attenuation of the neutral flux from plasma towards the NPA diagnostic device is governed by the same physics as the penetration of fast atoms from the NBI into plasma.

ENA sensors provide information on composition, spatial, temporal, and energy distributions of plasma particles around the Earth and other planets, at the heliospheric boundary, and in the interstellar medium [7,8]. Analogously, ENAs originate from energetic ions through charge-changing collisions with the constituents of the ambient space plasma of interest.

This Special Issue is dedicated to all aspects of atomic physics, atomic, and molecular data and numerical modeling involved in the development of NBI, NPA, and ENA systems, as well as in theoretical and experimental research work associated with these systems. The purpose is to facilitate the tasks of plasma and fusion scientists. Review articles, original research articles, and data tables are welcome, aiming to extend the renowned sources such as [9] and the subsequent volumes [10] and further develop the approach [11,12]. In addition, multidisciplinary papers illustrating the importance of the subject in both plasma physics and astrophysics would be of interest.

[1] M.J. Singh et al. Heating neutral beams for ITER: negative ion sources to tune fusion plasmas. New J. Phys. 19 055004 (2017) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1088/1367-2630/aa639d

[2] G. Giruzzi et al. Physics and operation oriented activities in preparation of the JT-60SA tokamak exploitation. Nucl. Fusion 57 085001 (2017) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1088/1741-4326/aa7962

[3] A. Hurlbatt et al. The particle tracking code BBCNI for large negative ion beams and their diagnostics. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 61 105012 (2019) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1088/1361-6587/ab3c13

[4] M.I. Mironov et al. Sawtooth mixing of alphas, knock-on D, and T ions, and its influence on NPA spectra in ITER plasma. Nucl. Fusion 58 082030 (2018) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1088/1741-4326/aab678

[5] Y. Kusama et al. Charge‐exchange neutral particle measurement in MeV energy range on JT‐60U. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66 339 (1995) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1063/1.1146405

[6] N. Aiba et al. JT-60SA Research Plan. JT-60SA Research Unit (2018) http://www.jt60sa.org/pdfs/JT-60SA_Res_Plan.pdf

[7] K.C. Hsieh, E. Möbius. Energetic Neutral Atoms in Space. A Diagnostic Tool for Space Plasmas. World Scientific (2020, in press) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1142/11241

[8] E.E. Scime, A.M. Keesee. Enhanced Energetic Neutral Atom Imaging. Front. Astron. Space Sci. 6:9 (2019) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3389/fspas.2019.00009

[9] Atomic and Plasma–Material Interaction Data for Fusion No. 1, IAEA, Vienna (1991)

[10] Atomic Data for Fusion, vol. 1, ORNL-6086 (1990)

[11] R.K. Janev et al. Penetration of energetic neutral beams into fusion plasmas. Nucl. Fusion 29 2125 (1989) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1088/0029-5515/29/12/006

[12] S. Suzuki et al. Attenuation of high-energy neutral hydrogen beams in high-density plasmas. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 40 2097 (1998) https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1088/0741-3335/40/12/009

Dr. Pavel Goncharov
Dr. Christian Hill
Dr. Kalle Heinola
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atoms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Neutral beam injection
Neutral particle analysis
Energetic neutral atoms
Atomic data for fusion
Diagnostics and modeling of fusion plasmas
Remote sensing of space plasmas

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 5041 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Review of the NPA Diagnostic Application at Globus-M/M2

by Nikolai N. Bakharev, Andrey D. Melnik and Fedor V. Chernyshev

Atoms 2023, 11(3), 53; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atoms11030053 - 07 Mar 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1161

Abstract

The application of a neutral particle analyzer (NPA) diagnostic at the Globus-M/M2 spherical tokamaks is discussed. Physical principles of the diagnostic are reviewed. Two general approaches—active and passive measurements—are described. Examples of NPA application for the ion temperature and isotope composition measurements are presented. NPA-aided studies of the energetic ions in the MHD-free discharges, as well as in the experiments with sawtooth oscillations and toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes, are considered. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutral Atoms in Controlled Fusion and Space Plasmas)

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15 pages, 5037 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analytical and Statistical Modelling of a Fast Ion Source Formed by Injection of a Neutral Beam into Magnetically Confined Plasma

by Pavel Goncharov

Atoms 2023, 11(2), 24; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atoms11020024 - 30 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1395

Abstract

Mathematical modelling of heating and current drive as well as yields and distributions of fusion products in a magnetically confined plasma subject to neutral beam injection requires, in turn, modelling of distributions of fast ions, which is a complex task including calculations of the source of suprathermal particles, i.e., the number of fast ions occurring in unit volume during unit time owing to the injection of fast atoms. The knowledge of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium, beam injection geometry and spatial distribution of the magnetic field are the necessary prerequisites. Explicit general analytical formulae for the source of fast ions have been obtained by two different methods. In addition, a method of statistical modelling is presented. Calculations of spatial and angular distributions of the fast ion source for a tokamak and verifications of the obtained results have been performed by a number of methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutral Atoms in Controlled Fusion and Space Plasmas)

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13 pages, 2271 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Heavy Ion Beam Probing Diagnostics on the TUMAN-3M Tokamak for Study Plasma Potential and Electric Fields in New Operational Regimes

by Leonid Askinazi, Gulnara Abdullina, Alexander Belokurov, Vladimir Kornev, Sergei Lebedev, Dmitri Razumenko, Dmitri Shergin, Alexander Smirnov, Alexander Tukachinsky and Nikolai Zhubr

Atoms 2022, 10(4), 152; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atoms10040152 - 14 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1274

Abstract

Heavy Ion Beam Probing (HIBP) diagnostic is a powerful tool for electric field studies in the hot dense plasma of modern-day toroidal magnetic confinement devices. On the TUMAN-3M tokamak, the HIBP have been used in regimes with improved plasma confinement to clear up the role of the radial electric field in the transition to good confinement regimes. Recently, a modernization of the TUMAN-3M HIBP diagnostics was performed, aiming to reconfigure it for a work with a reversed plasma current direction and improvement of the overall stability of the diagnostic. The results of the first measurements of the plasma potential in the co-NBI scenario are reported and discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutral Atoms in Controlled Fusion and Space Plasmas)

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11 pages, 3759 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Neutral Beams for Neutron Generation in Fusion Neutron Sources

by Eugenia Dlougach, Mikhail Shlenskii and Boris Kuteev

Atoms 2022, 10(4), 143; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atoms10040143 - 25 Nov 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1367

Abstract

Neutral beam injection is supposed to be the main source of high-energy particles, driving non-inductive current and generating primary neutrons in fusion neutron sources design based on tokamaks. Numerical simulation of high-energy particles’ thermalization in plasma and fusion neutron emission is calculated by novel dedicated software (NESTOR code). The neutral beam is reproduced statistically by up to 10⁹ injected particles. The beam efficiency and contribution to primary neutron generation is shown to be dependent on the injection energy, input current, and plasma temperature profile. A beam-driven plasma operation scenario, specific for FNS design, enables the fusion rate and neutron generation in plasma volume to be controlled by the beam parameters; the resultant primary neutron yield can be efficiently boosted in plasma maintained at a relatively low temperature when compared to ‘pure’ fusion reactors. NESTOR results are applicable to high-precision nuclear and power balance estimations, neutron power loads distribution among tokamak components, tritium generation in hybrid reactors, and for many other tasks critical for FNS design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutral Atoms in Controlled Fusion and Space Plasmas)

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14 pages, 4286 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Fast Particles on Plasma Rotation in the TUMAN-3M Tokamak

by Alexander Yashin, Alexander Belokurov, Leonid Askinazi, Alexander Petrov, Anna Ponomarenko and the TUMAN-3M Team

Atoms 2022, 10(4), 106; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atoms10040106 - 01 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1260

Abstract

In most present-day tokamaks, the majority of the heating power comes from sources such as neutral-beam injection (NBI) and other types of auxiliary heating which allow for the transfer of energy to the plasma by a small population of externally introduced fast particles. The behavior of the fast ions is important for the overall plasma dynamics, and understanding their influence is vital for the success of any future magnetic confinement devices. In the TUMAN-3M tokamak, it has been noted that the loss of fast particles during NBI can lead to dramatic changes in the rotation velocity profiles, as they are responsible for the negative radial electric field on the periphery. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutral Atoms in Controlled Fusion and Space Plasmas)

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10 pages, 598 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Two-Center Basis Generator Method Calculations for Li³⁺, C³⁺ and O³⁺ Ion Impact on Ground State Hydrogen

by Anthony C. K. Leung and Tom Kirchner

Atoms 2022, 10(1), 11; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/atoms10010011 - 21 Jan 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2242

Abstract

The two-center basis generator method is used to obtain cross sections for excitation, capture, and ionization in Li

^{3 +}

, C

^{3 +}

, and O

^{3 +}

collisions with ground-state hydrogen at projectile energies from 1 to 100 keV/u. The interaction [...] Read more.

The two-center basis generator method is used to obtain cross sections for excitation, capture, and ionization in Li

^{3 +}

, C

^{3 +}

, and O

^{3 +}

collisions with ground-state hydrogen at projectile energies from 1 to 100 keV/u. The interaction of the C

^{3 +}

and O

^{3 +}

projectiles with the active electron is represented by a model potential. Comparisons of cross sections with previously reported data show an overall good agreement, while discrepancies in capture for C

^{3 +}

collisions at low energies are noted. The present results show that excitation and ionization are similar across the three collision systems, which indicates that these cross sections are mostly dependent on the net charge of the projectile only. The situation is different for the capture channel. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutral Atoms in Controlled Fusion and Space Plasmas)

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