Ejection of Refractory Metal Particles from the Foil Surface Exposed to Shock Waves Generated by High-Velocity Plasma Flows

• Published in: Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute Vol. 47; no. 11; pp. 345 - 350
• Main Authors: Nikulin, V. Ya, Silin, P. V., Peregudova, E. N., Borovitskaya, I. V., Kolokoltsev, V. N., Maslyaev, S. A., Kobeleva, L. I., Degtyarev, V. F., Gaidar, A. I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.11.2020
• Subjects: Physics; Physics and Astronomy; plasma jets; plasma focus; controlled thermonuclear fusion; particle ejection; refractory materials; shock waves
• ISSN: 1068-3356; 1934-838X
• DOI: 10.3103/S1068335620110068

The objective of this research is to study the ejection of particles of a number of refractory metals from foils’ free surface when a shock wave is released on it. The choice of these metals is caused by that they are most promising materials for developing vacuum chambers of fusion reactors. The ejection of small (<1 μm) and large (to 10 μm) particles from the metal foil backside was detected. Shock waves were generated by pulsed high-velocity jets of dense plasma with an energy flux density of ≤10 9 W/cm 2 , incident on the surface of metal foils under study. The number of ejected particles per unit area was ~10 10 and ~10 9 cm –2 for large and small particles, respectively. Estimations of the dust particle ejection intensity show that this process can cause a significant plasma contamination by elements with high atomic number Z in thermonuclear facilities.