arXiv subjects

Sebastijan Brezinsek

Publications and source records attributed to Sebastijan Brezinsek.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

RF-Specific Tungsten Erosion and Global Transport in ITER under Neon Seeding

Ion cyclotron radio-frequency heating (ICRH) is a key auxiliary heating system in ITER, but high-power RF operation can enhance plasma-material interactions through rectified RF sheath potentials on antenna structures and nearby plasma-facing components. We present the first predictive application of the STRIPE (Simulated Transport of RF Impurity Production and Emission) framework to assess RF sheath-driven tungsten (W) erosion and global impurity transport from the ITER ICRH antenna under ITER-relevant neon-seeded conditions. STRIPE couples SOLPS-ITER plasma backgrounds, full-wave RF sheath calculations, geometry-specific ion energy-angle distributions, sputtering physics, and three-dimensional impurity transport. Simulations predict RF sheath potentials of 1 to 3 kV on antenna limiter sidewalls, increasing gross W erosion by about a factor of 64 relative to thermal sheath conditions and producing a gross source of 3.34e18 W atoms per second. Erosion is governed by RF-modified ion energy-angle distributions together with local plasma flux rather than sheath voltage alone. About 10 percent of sputtered W is locally redeposited, giving a net source of 3.01e18 W atoms per second. The RF-induced antenna source remains about three orders of magnitude smaller than the thermal divertor source and more than two orders of magnitude smaller than the integrated thermal main-chamber source. After 100 ms, about 22 percent of the mobile W inventory resides within the SOLPS-covered confined-plasma region, corresponding to an annular W concentration of 1.70e-6. These results indicate that the ITER ICRH antenna is unlikely to dominate the total W source budget under the conditions considered and demonstrate the need for coupled modeling of RF waves, sheaths, sputtering, redeposition, and global impurity transport.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2026

Hydrogen-induced lattice cohesion weakening favors atomic displacement

Atomic displacement -- the fundamental process underlying diverse deformation and damage phenomena in metals, from irradiation defect production to stress-driven dislocation motion -- is governed by interatomic cohesion strength. Here, lattice-dissolved hydrogen (LDH) occurring in metals under direct hydrogen exposure is identified to effectively weaken lattice cohesion, and thereby facilitating atomic displacement and dislocation movement upon plastic deformation in sub-threshold stress regime. This atomic-scale insight provides a physically transparent mechanism for hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity implicated in hydrogen embrittlement. We quantitatively verify the hydrogen-induced lattice cohesion weakening effect on metal surfaces exposed to low-energy hydrogen plasma, where massive defects are generated despite the absence of sufficient ion momentum for direct displacement damage. By unprecedentedly quantifying the cohesion-weakening effect of LDH independently from defect-trapped H, we establish a new paradigm to understand hydrogen embrittlement.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Deep-Learning based surrogate models for plasma exhaust simulations -- SOLPS-NN

Accurate models of the scrape-off layer are required for the design and operation of tokamak fusion reactors. Scrape-off layer simulations are computationally expensive, difficult to operate and suffer from numerical instabilities. A potential remedy comes in using machine learning models trained on simulations for fast and easy to use predictions. We present a such candidate surrogate model - named SOLPS-NN - to provide recommendations for the methods to construct it. Based on a large dataset of several thousand SOLPS-ITER simulations with reduced neutral fidelity, a variation of machine learning models with differing architectures and scopes are tested. The evaluation shows that simple fully connected neural networks are a suitable architecture. It is demonstrated that the whole spatial domain can be predicted at once, but that it is easier to achieve high accuracy by employing independent models for different observables. The presented surrogate model with reduced neutral fidelity is sufficient to predict access to detachment with trends similar to experiments. A small dataset of higher fidelity ITER baseline SOLPS-ITER simulations is used to (re-)train surrogate models. The smaller extent of the ITER dataset allows for achieving much more accurate predictions. Transfer learning from the previous surrogate model works but has no direct benefits over training a new model from scratch. Future efforts should focus on discovering the potential and the methods for models utilizing simulations with mixtures of fidelity.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Heat and particle flux detachment with stable plasma conditions in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator fusion experiment

Reduction of particle and heat fluxes to plasma facing components is critical to achieve stable conditions for both the plasma and the plasma material interface in magnetic confinement fusion experiments. A stable and reproducible plasma state in which the heat flux is almost completely removed from the material surfaces was discovered recently in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator experiment. At the same time also particle fluxes are reduced such that material erosion can be mitigated. Sufficient neutral pressure was reached to maintain stable particle exhaust for density control in this plasma state. This regime could be maintained for up to 28 seconds with a minimum feedback control.

physics.plasm-ph↗