Research on interactions of intense plasma-ion streams with a SiC target in a modified PF-1000 facility

This paper reports on studies of the plasma-irradiation resistance of silicon carbide (SiC). The SiC target was placed on the symmetry axis of a PF-1000 facility, at a distance of 9 cm from the inner electrode end. Pulsed plasma-ion streams were generated at p0 = 1.3 hPa D2 filling, and powered from a condenser bank charged to 380 kJ. Each plasma-ion stream had an averaged density of about 1017 cm−3 and a velocity of about 107 cm s−1 (at z = 9 cm), and contained fast deuteron beams of energies from about 80 keV to several hundreds of keV. To investigate interactions of such streams with the SiC target, optical emission spectroscopy was used. The recorded optical spectra were analyzed and attention was paid to the analysis of Si- and C-lines. Structural changes of the irradiated SiC target were investigated by means of a scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer.