FORMATION OF HOT ION POPULATIONS IN FUSION PLASMAS BY CLOSE COLLISIONS WITH FAST PARTICLES

As fusion-generated alpha-particles or RF-heated minority ions in a fu sion plasma collide with impurity ions, the latter can be accelerated to energies of several MeV, a fact which may be useful for diagnostic purposes. In this study, the source strength and the distribution func tion of the hot ion population thus created is calculated. Account is taken of the effects of nuclear elastic scattering and velocity-space anisotropy. In addition, the distribution of near 7 MeV alpha-particle s formed in close collisions between 3.5 MeV alpha-particles is determ ined.