Influence of atomic hydrogen, physical properties, and surface impurity film on droplet ejection from liquid metals interacting with inductively coupled hydrogen plasma

Abstract This paper reports characteristics of droplet ejection from liquid metals interacting with inductively coupled hydrogen plasma. It was observed that the ejection frequency was independent of the flux of atomic hydrogen, whereas it increased with the ion flux. The ejection frequency was dependent on the physical properties of liquid metals, and the transport height of droplets was shortened by the impurity film formation on the liquid metal surface. These results gave us an insight into a method to avoid the transport of droplets to the core plasma, when we apply liquid metals to divertor materials in nuclear fusion reactors.