Optical Properties of Tungsten: A Parametric Study to Characterize the Role of Roughness, Surface Composition and Temperature

Tungsten (W) is the material selected for the divertor exhaust of the international nuclear fusion experiment ITER. In this harsh environment, the interactions of heat loads and ion fluxes with W can induce temporary or permanent evolution in the optical properties. Poor knowledge of such evolution during a plasma operation can lead to errors in temperature measurements performed by optical diagnostics. Therefore, it is of fundamental importance to characterize possible changes in W optical properties. In this work, we studied the role of morphology and temperature on the optical response of W. The reflectivities of five W samples with different roughness values (20–100 nm) were measured during laser annealing (25–800 °C) in the visible and near-infrared domains (500–1100 nm). We observed an increase in reflectivity after annealing and we demonstrated that it was due to a change in the chemical composition of the surface, in particular a reduction in the amount of native oxide. Moreover, we show that roughness does not sensibly vary in the investigated temperature range. By highlighting the role played by roughness and surface impurities (e.g., oxide), we provide insight in how W optical properties can evolve in tokamaks where high ion fluxes, heat loads, and impurities can induce the evolution of both the morphology and surface composition of W.