Hydronitrogen Molecular Assisted Recombination (HN-MAR) process in ammonia seeded deuterium plasmas

Abstract Ammonia molecules, which will be formed in a nitrogen-seeded divertor plasma, show significant catalytic effects for volumetric recombination of hydrogen ions. This new Molecular Assisted Recombination (MAR), named the Hydronitrogen-MAR (HN-MAR), is based on the charge/ion exchange with NH 3 and subsequent volumetric recombination of NH 3 + and NH 4 + . In our PISCES-E RF plasma device, Ar is mixed with ND 3 /D 2 gasses to realize a high electron density plasma [ n e ∼ 10 17 m − 3 ] which allows us to see the importance of the dissociative recombination reactions which become comparable with wall loss reactions in our chamber. As increasing the plasma density, a calibrated Electrostatic Quadrupole Plasma analyzer measured dropping of ND 4 + density fractions which can be explained reasonably by the existence of its dissociative recombination process in the plasma as a dominant reaction.