TUNGSTEN EROSION AT LOW-ENERGY IMPACT UNDER STEADY-STATE PLASMA CONDITIONS

Tungsten is considered as one of the candidate materials for applicati on in future fusion devices for plasma facing components. The calculat ed threshold energy of deuterium for physical sputtering of tungsten i s rather high [3] (341 eV). Thus one could expect that tungsten surfac e sputtering would be absent in pure hydrogen edge plasma with low tem perature. Continuous deuterium plasma conditions were used in these ex periments to investigate the tungsten erosion characteristics.