Erosion of Fuzz Layers Formed in Steady-State Plasma Discharge

The erosion of nanostructured tungsten and titanium by high-heat plasma flux, laser, and arcing is investigated. To fabricate nanostructural fuzz layers and hierarchical granularity on the surfaces, samples were exposed to helium plasma in the steady-state plasma device PLM-M, which is a linear plasma trap of an eight-pole multicusp magnetic field with parameters similar to the scrape-off layer and divertor plasma in a tokamak. Arcing ignited with a Nd:YAG laser pulse on the target fuzzy surface in the helium plasma resulted in the melting of fibers and the creation of craters of several microns in depth and several tens of microns in diameter.