Zhihu Yang

Overview of plasma-facing materials and components for EAST

By the end of September 2006, the engineering commissioning of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) was completed and the first H2 plasma was achieved with stainless steel as the plasma-facing material (PFM). In the following phases, with gradual increase in the heating power, the EAST divertor targets have to handle expected heat loads up to ~10 MW m−2. The PFMs to be employed include doped graphite and W coatings. The former will be used to cover the whole plasma-facing surface in the first phase, and then the latter applied to replace the graphite tiles gradually in the second phase, and finally a whole W plasma-facing surface will be expected. Graphite has been studied for many years and contributed greatly to the HT-7 to achieve long pulses of some 100 s. The W coatings are being developed and the latest R&D development is reported in the paper.

X-ray emission of Xe 30+ ion beam impacting on Au target

X-ray emission from Xe 30+ ions at 350–600 keV impacting on an Au target was investigated at the Heavy Ion Research Facility at Lanzhou. Characteristic X-rays of Xe ions at energy of about 1.65 keV were observed. This X-ray emission is induced by the decay of very high Rydberg states of Xe ions. It was also found that the yield of such characteristic X-rays is decreasing with increasing the projectile kinetic energy. Simultaneously, the yield of the characteristic Au X-rays from the M shell increases also. These phenomena are qualitatively analyzed with the classical Coulomb over the Barrier Mode (COBM) for highly charged ions interacting with solid state surfaces.

L-shell x-ray yields and production cross-sections of molybdenum induced by low-energy highly charged argon ions*

L-shell x-ray yields of molybdenum bombarded by highly charged Arq+ ions (q = 11-16) are measured. The x-ray production cross-sections are extracted from the yields data. The energy of the incident Ar ions ranges from 200 to 350 keV. After the binding energy correction, experimental data are explained in the framework of binary-encounter-approximation (BEA). The direct ionization is treated in the united atom (UA) limit (Lapicki and Lichten 1985 Phys. Rev. A 31 1354), not in the separate atom (SA) limit. The calculation results of BEA (Gacia and Fortner 1973 Rev. Mod. Phys. 45 111) are much lower than the experimental results, while the results of binding energy modified BEA are basically in agreement with the experimental results.

A coincidence experimental setup for investigating multiple electron processes

The coincidence experimental setup for studying multiple electron processes at low energies established at the Institute of Modern Physics was presented. The setup includes time-of-flight spectrometer, position sensitive detector, and multi-parameter data acquisition system. Presented were a TOF spectrum for Ar12+ on Ar collisions, a position spectrum obtained in O2+ + He collisions, and a two-dimension spectrum for Ar8+ + Ar collisions at 104 keV. The experimental results were analyzed in detail and 12 subprocesses were identified from the two-dimension spectrum.

Production and decay of K -shell hollow krypton in collisions with 52–197-MeV/u bare xenon ions

X-ray spectra of K-shell hollow krypton atoms produced in single collisions with 52 - 197 MeV/u Xe54+ ions are measured in a heavy-ion storage ring equipped with an internal gas-jet target. Energy shifts of the K{\alpha}_1,2^s, K{\alpha}_1,2^(h,s), and K\b{eta}_1,3^s transitions are obtained. Thus, the average number of the spectator L-vacancies presented during the x-ray emission is deduced. From the relative intensities of the K{\alpha}_1,2^s and K{\alpha}_1,2^(h,s) transitions, the ratio of K-shell hollow krypton to singly K-shell ionized atoms is determined to be 14 - 24%. In the considered collisions, the K-vacancies are mainly created by the direct ionization which cannot be calculated within the perturbation descriptions. The experimental results are compared with a relativistic coupled channel calculation performed within the independent particle approximation.

Study of L-shell x-ray production cross section of Ta and Au by 20–55 MeV O5+ and F5+ bombardment

Experimental work was performed at the HI-13 tandem accelerator in the Chinese Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). In this experiment, L-shell x-ray production cross sections were measured for solid Ta and Au targets by 20?55?MeV O5+ and F5+ ions. The L1, L?, L? and L?-subshell characteristic x-rays of Ta and Au were measured. The ratios ?(L?)/?(L?), ?(L?)/?(L?) and ?(Ll)/?(L?) of Ta and Au L-subshell production cross sections were calculated according to experimental data. The results are compared with the predictions of energy-loss Coulomb-repulsion perturbed-stationary-state relativistic theory. Fairly good agreement is obtained between the experimental and the calculated values.

Dynamics of slow electrons transmitting through straight glass capillary and tapered glass capillary

It has been found that the transmission rate of the electrons through insulating capillaries as a function of time/incident charge is not the same as that of the ions. The question arises that by using the electrons, if the negative charge patches can be formed to facilitate the transmission of the following electrons, thereby substantiating that the so-called guiding effect works also for electrons. This study aims to observe the time evolutions of the transmission of electrons through a straight glass tube and a tapered glass capillary. This will reveal the details of how and (or) if the negative charge patches can be formed when the electrons transport through them. In this work, a set of MCP/phosphor two-dimensional detection system based on Labview platform is developed to obtain the time evolution of the angular distribution of the transmitted electrons. The pulsed electron beams are obtained to test our detection system. The time evolution of the angular profile of 1.5 keV electrons transmitting through the glass tube/capillary is observed. The transmitted electrons are observed on the detector for a very short time and disappear for a time and then appear again for both the glass tube and tapered glass capillary, leading to an oscillation. The positive charge patches are formed in the insulating glass tube and tapered glass capillary since the secondary electron emission coefficient for the incident energy is larger than 1. It is due to the fact that fast discharge of the deposited charge leads to the increase of the transmission rate, while the fast blocking of the incident electrons due to the deposited positive charge leads to the decrease of the transmission rate. The geometrical configuration of the taper glass capillary tends to make the secondary electrons deposited at the exit part to form the negative patches that facilitate the transmission of electrons. This suggests that if the stable transmission needs to be reached for producing the electron micro-beam by using tapered glass capillaries, the steps must be taken to have the proper grounding and shielding of the glass capillaries and tubes. Our results show a difference in transmission through the insulating capillary between electrons and highly charged ions.

The continuous and discrete molecular orbital x-ray bands from Xeq+ (12≤q≤29) +Zn collisions

In this paper, the x-ray emissions are measured by the interaction of 1500–3500 keV Xeq+ (q = 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26 and 29) ions with Zn target. When q < 29, we observe Ll, Lα, Lβ1, Lβ2 and Lγ characteristic x-rays from Xeq+ ions and a broad M-shell molecular orbital (MO) x-ray band from the transient quasi-molecular levels. It is found that their yields quickly increase with different rates as the incident energy increases. Besides, the widths of the broad MO x-ray bands are about 0.9–1.32 keV over the energy range studied and are proportional to v1/2 (v = projectile velocity). Most remarkably, when the projectile charge state is 29, the broad x-ray band separates into several narrow discrete spectra, which was never observed before in this field.

Incident ion charge state dependence of the visible light emission of Xeq+ ions bombarding aluminum

In this work, we studied the photon emission in the visible light range for Xe q+ ions of different charge states (10 ≤ q ≤ 21) bombardment on an aluminum target at 410 keV. During the interactions, the spectra in wavelength range 300–500 nm are recorded, including the photons from Al atoms and neutralized Xe + ions. The yield of the visible light strongly depends on the projectile charge states. Its variation tendency with the charge states is similar to that of the potential energy variation. In addition, the experimental results also indicate that when the incident charge state is less than the critical charge state, it obeys the staircase classical-over-barrier model.

Production of projectile and target K-vacancy in near-symmetric collisions of 60–100 MeV Cu9+ ions with thin Zn target*

We report studies on both target and projectile K-shell ionization by collisions of Cu9+ ions on the thin Zn target in the energy range of 60–100 MeV. In this work, the relative ratio for the production of the target to projectile K-vacancy is measured. The result shows that it almost remains stable over this energy range and has good consistency with the predictions by vacancy transfer via the 2pσ–1sσ rotational coupling, which gives experimental evidence for K-vacancy sharing between two partners. Furthermore, the discussion for comparisons between the experimental ionization cross sections and the possible theoretical estimations is presented. These comparisons suggest that the experimental data agree well with those predicted by the Binary–Encounter approximation (BEA) model but are not in good agreement with the modified BEA calculations. It allows us to infer that the direct ionization (and/or excitation) is of importance to initial K-vacancy production before 2pσ–1sσ transitions in the present collision condition.