Advances in neutral tungsten ultraviolet spectroscopy for the potential benefit to gross erosion diagnosis

TL;DR

This study identifies new ultraviolet spectral lines of tungsten in fusion plasmas, which could enhance diagnostic techniques for measuring tungsten erosion in tokamaks.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive survey of 29 tungsten UV emission lines, including 20 previously unreported in fusion plasmas, and discusses their potential for erosion diagnostics.

Findings

29 tungsten spectral lines observed in UV region

20 lines are newly reported in fusion plasmas

Potential for improved erosion measurement accuracy

Abstract

A spectral survey of tungsten emission in the ultraviolet region has been completed in the DIII-D tokamak and the CTH torsatron to assess the potential benefit of UV emission for the diagnosis of gross W erosion. A total of 29 W I spectral lines are observed from the two experiments using survey spectrometers between 200-400 nm with level identifications provided based on a structure calculation for many of the excited states that produce strong emission lines. Of the 29 observed lines, 20 have not previously been reported in fusion relevant plasmas, including an intense line at 265.65 nm which could be important for benchmarking the frequently exploited line at 400.88 nm. Nearly all of the observed spectral lines decay down to one of the six lowest energy levels for neutral W, which are likely to be long-lived metastable states. The impact of metastable level populations on the W I emission spectrum and any erosion measurement utilizing a spectroscopic technique is potentially significant. Nevertheless, the high density of W I emission in the UV region allows for the possibly of determining the relative metastable fractions and plasma parameters local to the erosion region. Additionally, the lines observed in this work could be used to perform multiple independent gross erosion measurements, leading to more accurate diagnosis of gross tungsten erosion.