Analysis of Molecular Activated Recombination in Detached Divertor Plasmas^*)

Molecular activated recombination (MAR) has been received attention as one of the most important processes to realize the detached state, specifically in the linear plasma device, GAMMA10/PDX. The impact of ELMs on the MAR reaction and the resultant detached state, however, have not fully been understood. We have developed a zero-dimensional model of atomic-molecular processes which takes into account MAR by separate treatment of vibrational excited states of H₂ molecules, and the high energy tail of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) during the ELM heat pulse. The results show that the rate of MAR increases during ELMs due to an increase in excited molecules.