Hydronitrogen Molecular Assisted Recombination (HN-MAR) process in ammonia seeded deuterium plasmas

Ammonia molecules, which will be formed in a nitrogen-seeded divertor plasma, show significant catalytic effects for volumetric recombination of hydrogen ions. This new Molecular Assisted Recombination (MAR), named the Hydronitrogen-MAR (HN-MAR), is based on the charge/ion exchange with NH ₃ and subsequent volumetric recombination of NH ₃ ⁺ and NH ₄ ⁺ . In our PISCES-E RF plasma device, Ar is mixed with ND ₃ /D ₂ gasses to realize a high electron density plasma [n _e ∼ 10 ¹⁷ m ^{− 3} ] which allows us to see the importance of the dissociative recombination reactions which become comparable with wall loss reactions in our chamber. As increasing the plasma density, a calibrated Electrostatic Quadrupole Plasma analyzer measured dropping of ND ₄ ⁺ density fractions which can be explained reasonably by the existence of its dissociative recombination process in the plasma as a dominant reaction.