Characterization of deuterium retention and co-deposition of fuel with lithium on the divertor tile of EAST using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

Abstract A laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system has been developed to measure and monitor the composition evolution on plasma facing materials (PFMs) of Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). As a necessity and important proof of principle experiment, LIBS analysis has been performed for lithium–deuterium co-deposition layer diagnosis of EAST divertor tiles in lab experiments. The distribution of deuterium retention has been obtained from the depth of 0.5–4 μm in the divertor tiles. The deuterium/hydrogen concentration ratio was estimated as 0.17 ± 0.02 in lithium–deuterium co-deposition layer. Moreover, the depth profile behaviors of lithium and deuterium indicate that the deuterium retention in divertor tile came from lithium–deuterium co-deposition processes during deuterium discharge in EAST. This work would improve the understanding of deuterium retention and lithium–deuterium co-deposition mechanism and give a guidance to optimize the LIBS system which will be a unique and useful diagnostic approach in EAST 2014-campaign.