Experimental investigation of vapor shielding effects induced by ELM-like pulsed plasma loads using the double plasma gun device

We have developed a unique experimental device of so-called double plasma gun, which consists of two magnetized coaxial plasma gun (MCPG) devices, in order to clarify effects of vapor shielding on material erosion due to transient events in magnetically confined fusion devices. Two ELM-like pulsed plasmas produced by the two MCPG devices were injected into a target chamber with a variable time difference. For generating ablated plasmas in front of a target material, an aluminum foil sample in the target chamber was exposed to a pulsed plasma produced by the 1st MCPG device. The 2nd pulsed plasma was produced with a time delay of 70 μs. It was found that a surface absorbed energy measured by a calorimeter was reduced to ∼66% of that without the Al foil sample. Thus, the reduction of the incoming plasma energy by the vapor shielding effect was successfully demonstrated in the present experiment.