Carbon coating on the wall of nuclear fusion devices and plasma-surface interactions

The plasma-assisted carbon-film coating of the inner walls of nuclear fusion devices, which is a new technical trend, is reviewed in view of plasma-surface interactions. A great advantage of the easiness for both wide-area and repeated coatings is due to the so-called in situ coating of the walls compared with the precoating. The amorphous carbon films produced by this in situ plasma coating contain ordinarily a large number of H atoms (H/C = 0.4∼0.6), which lead to recycling of a large amount of hydrogen (release and implantation of H atoms) in nuclear fusion discharges. This demerit of the plasma method can be covered by reducing the H content in the films under suitable coating conditions, and also by conditioning the film surface with a helium glow discharge. A simple model for the interaction between a-C : H film and hydrogen plasma is proposed. Further, another low-Z material coating, that is in situ boron coating, is briefly discussed. (author)