USE OF SPECTRA FROM FOIL-EXCITED HEAVY-ION BEAMS TO INTERPRET RADIATION FROM PLASMAS

Spectra from foil-excited heavy ion beams can be used to investigate the relative abundance and charge state composition of heavy metal contaminants which cause severe radiative energy losses in tokamak-produced plasmas. The degree of ionization of these metals in the tokamak plasma is not well known because of uncertainties in ionization and recombination rates and particle confinement times. Only a few stages of ionization are typically prominent in foil-excited spectra, however, and both the most probable charge state and distribution width are well known. Highly ionized heavy ions (e.g. Ti, Mo, W and Au) which span the range of charge states found in present tokamaks were produced by passing beams from the Brookhaven MP tandem Van de Graaff accelerator facility through 20 µg/cm2 carbon stripping foils. EUV radiation was recorded with a grazing incidence spectrometer. Comparisons of the beam-foil spectra with radiation from plasmas, and recent direct determinations of atomic oscillator strengths for principal resonance lines of such highly ionized species as Li-like iron (Fe23+), Na-like bromine (Br24+), and Cu-like iodine (I24+) are discussed. Copyright © 1978 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.