Characterization of an electrothermal plasma source with an elongated pulse length

Summary form only given. The realization of fusion energy requires materials that can withstand high heat and particle fluxes at the plasma material interface. The U.S. fusion energy program has placed development of such materials to be a top tier area of research interest. In this work, an electrothermal (ET) plasma source has been designed as a possible transient heat flux source for the Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The ET source plasma can mimic transient events that impact the plasma facing components of a tokamak reactor, known as edge localized modes (ELMs). An ET plasma source operates in the ablative arc regime, which is driven by a DC capacitive discharge. The plasma arc current travels through the 4 mm bore of a liner and subsequently ablates and ionizes the liner material. This results in a high density plasma that carries a large bulk momentum out of the exit of the source.