Fast Camera Images of Surviving Gallium Droplets During Plasma–Liquid Gallium Jet Interaction Experiments in ISTTOK

Liquid metals have received a renewed interest in fusion research due to the advantages that these materials could offer to overcome the erosion problem of plasma facing components presently used in large-size fusion devices. In ISTTOK tokamak, the plasma-liquid gallium jet interaction is currently being studied. One of the main technical problems faced during the implementation of the experimental setup was to minimize the amount of gallium that remains in the vacuum chamber. Despite the large effort put in fulfilling this task, liquid-metal droplets could not be completely eradicated from the plasma. Here, pictures of one of those remaining droplets traveling through the plasma are presented and discussed.