August 8, 2024
The primary goal of this proposal is to perform the experimental testing of a novel class of liquid metal plasma-facing component (LM PFCs) candidate materials using the facilities at Penn State University’s Radiation Surface Science and Engineering Laboratory (RSSEL). New alloys will have properties that have a qualitative similarity to SnLi, but are quantitatively greatly improved: alloys will have low Z sputtering, considerably lower vapor pressure and ability to operate at considerably higher temperature. In view of the extreme challenges faced by PFCs in an FPP, and the need for both good PFC operation and excellent core plasma conditions, LMs with the highly advantageous properties described here might be crucial to the progress of magnetic fusion. Experimental results will be fit to models for segregation and thermal sputtering so the properties can be more readily extrapolated.