Material ejection and surface morphology changes during transient heat loading of tungsten as plasma-facing component in fusion devices

We investigated the effect of edge-localized mode like transient heat events on pristine samples for two different grades of deformed tungsten with ultrafine and nanocrystalline grains as potential candidates for plasma-facing components. Pulses from a laser beam with durations similar to 1 ms and operating in the near infrared wavelength were used for simulating transient heat loading in fusion devices. We specifically focused on investigating and analysis of different mechanisms for material removal from the sample surface under repetitive transient heat loads. Several techniques were applied for analysing different mechanisms leading to material removal from the W surface under repetitive transient heat loads which include witness plates for collected ejected material, and subsequent analysis using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, visible imaging using fast-gated camera, and evaluating thermal emission from the particles using optical emission spectroscopy. Our results show a significantly improved performance of polycrystalline cold-rolled tungsten compared to tungsten produced using an orthogonal machining process under repetitive transient loads for a wide range of the power densities.