Highly Charged Ions in Magnetic Fusion Plasmas: Research Opportunities and Diagnostic Necessities

Highly charged ions play a crucial role in magnetic fusion plasmas. These plasmas are excellent sources for producing highly charged ions and copious amounts of radiation for studying their atomic properties. These studies include calibration of density diagnostics, x-ray production by charge exchange, line identifications and accurate wavelength measurements, and benchmark data for ionization balance calculations. Studies of magnetic fusion plasmas also consume a large amount of atomic data, especially in order to develop new spectral diagnostics. Examples we give are the need for highly accurate wavelengths as references for measurements of bulk plasma motion, the need for accurate line excitation rates that encompass both electron-impact excitation and indirect line formation processes, for accurate position and resonance strength information of dielectronic recombination satellite lines that may broaden or shift diagnostic lines or that may provide electron temperature information, and the need for accurate ionization balance calculations. We show that the highly charged ions of several elements are of special current interest to magnetic fusion, notably highly charged ions of argon, iron, krypton, xenon, and foremost of tungsten. The electron temperatures thought to be achievable in the near future may produce W70+ ions and possibly ions with even higher charge states. This means that all but a few of the most highly charged ions are of potential interest as plasma diagnostics or are available for basic research.