Studies of detached plasmas on the ULS divertor simulator

We report on studies of detached plasma operation in the UMIST linear system (ULS). The ULS, designed to study a range of edge physics issues relevant to tokamak divertors, is capable of producing plasmas with electron densities and temperatures in the range 1017–1019 m−3 and 2–15 eV, respectively. Previous studies of the interaction between the hydrogen plasma and low-pressure hydrogen gas have identified a regime where molecular activated recombination (MAR) processes dominate plasma losses. Here we report on studies in which the upstream plasma parameters are varied such that three-body and radiative electron–ion recombination (EIR) dominates. Initial modelling of the recombination region is undertaken using a simplified version of the one-dimensional electron energy and continuity equations. We determine the factors that govern the threshold between MAR and EIR dominated detached regimes in terms of upstream plasma parameters and compare this with predictions based on the competing effects of electron cooling and recombination.