Effects in CVD diamond exposed to fusion plasmas

Micro and nanocrystalline diamond layers have been deposited on molybdenum substrates by hot-filament CVD, and tested in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak as a protective coating of fusion plasma-facing materials. The modification of surface properties induced by high density plasma was investigated by SEM, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Although some modifications of the coating, amorphization and some traces of arcing, diamond proved to be a viable protection as most of the samples were still coated after the plasma exposure. Fuel retention measurements, evaluated by nuclear reaction analysis, showed that a small amount of deuterium was trapped in the surface of the coatings. The chemical erosion of the layers was 50% lower than graphite, as evaluated by dedicated experiments in Pilot-PSI, a linear plasma simulator device. © 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.