On the transport of Edge Localized Mode filaments in the tokamak scrape-off layer

Microsecond probe measurements of the electron temperature during the tokamak edge localised mode (ELM) instability show that the peak values significantly exceed those obtained by conventional techniques. The temperatures measured at the plasma facing component (divertor) are around 80% of the initial value (at the pedestal). This challenges the current understanding, where only several percent of the pedestal value are measured at the divertor. Our results imply a negligible energy transfer from the electrons to the ions during the ELM instability, and therefore no associated increase of the ion power loads on the divertor. This observation is supported by the simple analytic free-streaming model, as well as by full kinetic simulations. The energetic ELM ion loads are expected to be one of the main divertor damaging factors; therefore, the obtained results give an optimistic prediction for next generation fusion devices.