Magnum-PSI is specifically developed to study the material aspects in fusion reactors and in general any high intensity plasma-wall interaction system. The infrastructure consists of:
-1- an intense source for magnetized plasmas. The system can mimic the steady state heat fluxes as well as the bursty transient heat fluxes (a.k.a. ELMs) as expected in future fusion reactors.
-2- versatile, water cooled, target holders, to position the materials under investigation into the plasma beam. The target material can be electrically biased with respect to the plasma source.
-3- a diagnostic park, for detailed analysis of the plasma conditions and the material and surface conditions. In particular, the plasma diagnostic park consists of incoherent and collective Thomson scattering, fast infrared cameras (for thermography), multi wavelength pyrometer, visible light spectroscopy systems, calorimetry, resistive foil bolometer, Laser Induced Break-down Spectroscopy.
-4- Capillary porous structures (CPSs) are available to create conduction based stabilized plasma facing components to enable the study of interaction between plasma and liquid metals such as lithium, tin and gallium.
-5- A new Upgraded Pilot-PSI (UPP) PSI test facility is being installed with diagnostics to measure the evolution of surface modifications during plasma exposure. Research topics of interest include: deuterium retention in tungsten and lithium, chemisorption of hydrogen, simultaneous damaging and fuel implantation, and material migration in solids and liquids, especially tungsten and liquid lithium.
-6- An Ion Beam Facility (IBF) is available, for detailed studies of the surface morphology after plasma exposure. The IBF has beam lines to Magnum-PSI, UPP and a stand alone Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) station. The IBF offers various ion beam analysis techniques such as in situ RBS, ERD and NRA and stand-alone PIXE and PIGE.
-7- A versatile and flexible experiment called nano-PSI uses relatively low temperature and low density plasmas to expose materials. It is primarily used to study plasma enhanced modification of surfaces, for example for nano- and micro-structuring of electrodes for efficient water splitting, plasma interactions with liquid metals (Sn, SnLi) or optical systems (Ru, Mo).
-8- Thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) is available to measure what molecules are adsorbed on the surface.
-9- A glove box to prepare liquid metal samples in a controlled atmosphere.
It foreseen that the Magnum-PSI facilities will be extended in the coming years. This comprises the diagnostic capabilities (Laser Induced Fluorescence with vacuum UV broad-band absorption spectroscopy to measure the rotational and vibrational distributions of molecular hydrogen and multi imaging spectroscopy), a source test facility (with the view to develop more potent sources for various linear devices) and a dedicated facility to test flowing liquid metal concept reactor components and the option to test larger components in Magnum-PSI to study macroscopic dynamic heat fluxes. New IBA detectors for UPP will be developed with the view to carry-out ion beam analysis of the plasma facing materials during plasma eposure.