Use of neutralized knock-on ion fluxes for alpha-particle confinement studies

• Published in: Plasma physics and controlled fusion 2014-12, Vol.56 (12), p.125002-7
• Main Authors: Nesenevich, V G, Afanasyev, V I, Goncharov, P R, Mironov, M I, Petrov, M P, Ya Petrov, S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer simulation; Confinement; Controlled fusion; Density; Diagnostic systems; Energy distribution; Fluxes; knock-on ions; neutral particle diagnostics; Neutral particles; particle confinement
• ISSN: 0741-3335; 1361-6587
• DOI: 10.1088/0741-3335/56/12/125002

One of the objectives of neutral particle diagnostics on large tokamaks exploring DT plasma is to measure the distribution functions of fast deuterium (D) and tritium (T) ions in a suprathermal energy range. High energy tails in D,T-ion energy distributions (so-called knock-on ions) appear as a result of close elastic collisions between thermal fuel ions and fusion α-particles. The knock-on ion density depends directly on the density and energy distribution of the α-particles. Therefore measurements of the neutralized knock-on D,T-ion fluxes escaping from the plasma volume can provide information on the α-particle confinement in DT plasma. This paper presents the results of a numerical simulation for the neutralized fast D,T-ion fluxes in the case of ITER fusion plasma. Feasible experimental measurements of the fluxes are considered with respect to the neutral particle diagnostics. We will show that the diagnostics can provide information on the confinement properties of fast ions in DT fusion plasma.