Deposition of lithium on a plasma edge probe in TFTR. Behavior of lithium-painted walls interacting with edge plasmas

Recent observations have indicated that lithium pellet injection wall conditioning plays an important role in achieving the enhanced supershot regime in TFTR (the tokamak test fusion reactor). However, little is understood about the behavior of lithium-coated limiter walls, interacting with edge plasmas. In the final campaign of TFTR, a cylindrical carbon fiber composite probe was inserted into the boundary plasma region and exposed to ohmically heated deuterium discharges with lithium pellet injection. The ion-drift side probe surface exhibits a sign of codeposition of lithium, carbon, oxygen, and deuterium, whereas the electron side essentially indicates high-temperature erosion. It is found that lithium is incorporated in these codeposits in the form of oxide at the concentration of a few percent. In the electron side, lithium has been found to penetrate deeply into the probe material, presumably via rapid diffusion through interplane spaces in the graphite crystalline. Though it is not conclusive, materials mixing in the carbon and lithium system appears to be a key process to successful lithium wall conditioning. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.