Pulsed repetition rate nanosecond laser heating and ablation of the tokamak graphite tile deposited layers

Laser heating and ablation of the plasma-facing surface of a graphite tile from TEXTOR tokamak that was covered by a deposited carbon layer has been studied. Laser heating measurements were performed with a pulsed nanosecond Nd-YAG laser (2nd harmonic, 10 kHz repetition rate, 100 ns pulse duration). Surface temperature measurements were recorded with a home-made pyrometer having a response time of 15 μs (t99%). The experimental results are simulated with an analytical model of laser heating of a surface covered by a deposited layer and heated repeatedly by laser pulses. The comparison between experimental and theoretical data of the observed temperature excursions enables us to assess the deposited carbon layer physical parameters (thermal conductivity, porosity, etc.) if the thermal and optical properties of the graphite substrate are known. Laser ablation measurements were performed with two pulsed nanosecond Nd-YAG lasers (20 Hz and 10 kHz repetition rate with 5 ns and 100 ns pulse duration, respectively). For a plasma-facing graphite surface covered by a thick (∼30–50 μm) deposited carbon layer, the ablation threshold is 4.5 ± 1 kJ/m2 regardless of the pulse duration. The obtained ablation threshold is significantly lower than the one measured for a virgin tokamak graphite sample. The comparison of the experimental results and theoretical data demonstrated that the laser ablation mechanisms for tokamak graphite and thick carbon layers deposited on plasma-facing surface are different.