Characterisation of carbon dust produced in sputtering discharges and in the Tore Supra tokamak

The sputtering of inside wall components of tokamaks can lead to the injection of supersaturated vapor in the edge plasmas. The resulting condensation favors the formation of clusters which can give rise to solid particulates by further accretion. Sputtering discharges are proposed to have highlight on the formation of carbonaceous dust observed in the tokamaks with graphite based wall components. The flux of the sputtered carbon atoms is evaluated in the conditions of our laboratory discharges as well as the evolution of their energy distribution. It is shown that a cooling mechanism occurs through collisions with the discharge argon atoms, leading to a nucleation phase. A comparison between the carbon structure of the resulting dust particles and a dust sample collected in the Tore Supra tokamak is proposed. The structural differences are discussed and can be correlated to specific plasma conditions. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.