The adhesion of tungsten dust on plasma-exposed tungsten surfaces

• The adhesion of tungsten dust is measured on plasma-exposed and non-exposed tungsten substrates with the electrostatic detachment method. Tungsten substrates of comparable surface roughness have been exposed to the deuterium plasmas of the GyM linear device and the argon plasmas of rf glow discharges under conditions which invariably modify the surface composition due to physical sputtering. The adhesion has been systematically characterized for different spherical nearly monodisperse dust populations. Independent of the dust size, an approximate 50% post-exposure reduction of the average and spread of the adhesive force has been consistently observed and attributed to surface chemistry modifications.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Dust adhesion

Pull-off force

Dust remobilization

Electrostatic detachment

Adsorbates

Sputtering

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)