19–21 Oct 2026
Frascati
UTC timezone
The deadline for the abstracts submission has been delayed to July 20, 2026

Divertor Ion Temperature Profile Measurements at DIII-D with RFEA and PIC-Enhanced Interpretation

21 Oct 2026, 10:10
20m
Sala Bruno Brunelli (Frascati)

Sala Bruno Brunelli

Frascati

Building F23 Via Enrico Fermi 45, 00044 Frascati, Rome

Speaker

Bingzhe Zhao (University of Tennessee Knoxville)

Description

A divertor retarding field energy analyzer (RFEA), for time-resolved local ion temperature (Ti) measurements was tested in the lower divertor of the DIII-D tokamak using the Divertor Material Evaluation System (DiMES). Two more RFEAs embedded in the lower divertor tiles are also to be deployed during the upcoming Tungsten Tile Testing (T3) Campaign. DiMES tests have demonstrated high quality signals in most of the scrape-off layer (SOL) with significant signal distortion under low temperature conditions (electron temperature, Te < 5 eV) such as the private flux region and suggest a Ti/Te ratio ranging from 1-4. The dependencies of Ti, including distance to separatrix, input power, and election density, are investigated and compared with Te from the Langmuir probes. Furthermore, particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with realistic probe geometry and experimental conditions are utilized to decipher the signal distortions caused by space charge and selective transmission inside the RFEA cavity. The PIC-based workflow has shown effectiveness to significantly improve the interpretability of the signal and facilitates detailed analysis for ion energy distribution function (IEDF) at the divertor surface, beyond the conventional Maxwellian assumptions for the incident ions.

Author

Bingzhe Zhao (University of Tennessee Knoxville)

Co-authors

Dr Cedric Tsui (Sandia National Laboratories) Dr David Donovan (University of Tennessee Knoxville) Dr Dmitry Rudakov (University of California San Diego) Dr Igor Bykov (General Atomics) Dr Jayson Barr (General Atomics) Dr Jonathan Coburn (Sandia National Laboratories) Dr Jun Ren (University of Tennessee Knoxville) Mr Mason Phillips (University of Tennessee Knoxville) Dr Ryan Hood (sandia national laboratories)

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