Impurity production and acceleration in CTIX

The Compact Toroid Injection Experiment (CTIX) produces a high density, high velocity hydrogen plasma that maintains its configuration in free space on a MHD resistive time scale. In order to study the production and acceleration of impurities in the injector, several sets of silicon collector probes were exposed to spheromak-like CT’s exiting the accelerator. Elemental analysis by Auger Electron Spectroscopy indicated the presence of O, Al, Fe, and Cu in films up to 200 Å thickness (1000 CT interactions). Using a smaller number of CT interactions (10–20), implantation of Fe and Cu was measured by Auger depth profiling. The amount of impurities was found to increase with accelerating voltage and number of CT interactions while use of a solenoidal field reduced the amount. Comparison of the implanted Fe and Cu with TRIM simulations indicated that the impurities were traveling more slowly than the hydrogen CT.