Experimental study on the characteristics of supersonic molecular beam injection

Supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) emerges as an efficient fueling method for magnetic fusion plasma. In this work, injector tests were performed under various working conditions using a schlieren diagnostic system. Additionally, the parameter dependence of beam characteristics was investigated to optimize the supersonic molecular beam’s (SMB) characteristics and improve its fueling performance. The results show that the length of the zone of silence and the divergence angle of the beam is affected by system conditions and injector characteristic parameters. Besides, this paper provides the quantitative change law of the beam characteristic parameters. Furthermore, comparisons between the ordinary round-hole injector and the self-developed integrated injector reveal that the self-developed integrated injector outperforms the ordinary round-hole injector in terms of effective beam injection distance and beam aggregation performance. Therefore, this study creates a database and a reference for supersonic molecular beam injector design and beam optimization on various devices.