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SHEAR: Sheath Role in plasma-surface interactions: applications to unipolar arcs, mirrors cleaning and plasma heating
Third-party funded project
Project title SHEAR: Sheath Role in plasma-surface interactions: applications to unipolar arcs, mirrors cleaning and plasma heating
Principal Investigator(s) Marot, Laurent
Project Members Hiret, Paul
Organisation / Research unit Departement Physik / Nanomechanik (Meyer)
Project start 01.01.2020
Probable end 31.12.2023
Status Completed
Abstract

The understanding of plasma sheath, a charged layer that arises in the vicinity of any material surface immersed in plasmas, is crucial in order to control plasma-surface interactions. If the sheath mechanisms are well known in unmagnetized plasmas, even in Radio Frequency (RF) environments, a universal model for a sheath in a tilted magnetic field and more especially with a RF source does not yet exist. The SHEAR project primarily aims at developing and validating such models, by the comparison between simulations and highly resolved measurements in dedicated devices.

 

The issues raised by sheath and plasma potential formation in such plasmas is crucial for the understanding of many nonlinear phenomena encountered in particle confinement, particle acceleration, localized high-energy flux and transport barriers. Here can be mentioned a wide range of fields from laboratory to space, the acceleration of ions in plasma thrusters, the charging of satellites or the additional ion or plasma heating in fusion devices. In RF plasmas in particular, this understanding is important for numerous applications based on high density plasmas, such as magnetically enhanced reactive ion etching, plasma ion assisted deposition (PIAD), or impurity control in fusion plasmas….

SHEAR is a joined research project between 3 academic partners: the Jean Lamour Institute (University of Lorraine, France), the Physics Department of the Basel University (Switzerland) and the Swiss Plasma Center (EPFL, Switzerland). The simulations carried out by French partners will be cross-compared with experimental measurements in a variety of B-field angle and magnitude (0-3.5 T) configurations, in various devices hosted by the three project’s partners. In addition, dedicated simulations will directly aim at refining the interpretation of probe measurements, which will be further cross-validated with optical measurements. Therefore, the physics of diagnostics has a central place in the SHEAR project.

 

The SHEAR work program is organized into 5 inter-related scientific work packages (WP) based on coherent theoretical, modelling and experimental approaches. The first WP aims principally at developing accurate interpretation models for probe measurements in magnetized RF plasmas. The second WP focuses on the description of the coupling between RF wave and magnetized plasmas. The third WP aims at understanding the heat and particle flux patterns on surfaces immersed in such plasmas, with a view to control these fluxes for various applications. The fourth WP focuses specifically on the improvement of one of these applications, the cleaning of mirrors in magnetic fusion devices. The last WP is devoted to the understanding of the influence of surface properties and plasma conditions on the triggering and dynamics of unipolar arcs, in order to suppress or to tame them in various applications.

Financed by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
   

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29/03/2024