Numerical analysis of isotope effect in NIFS negative ion source

Result of hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D) experiments done by NIFS research and development negative ion source (RNIS) demonstrated that the co-extracted electron current with the negative ions and the electron density in the driver region in the D experiment have been around three times higher than that in the H experiment. To investigate mechanism of this difference, electron transport simulation using 3D kinetic particle tracking model KEIO-MARC code has been modified and applied to analysis of the isotope effect in the NIFS negative ion source. Simulation result suggests that impacts of isotope effects of sheath potential drop, coulomb collisions, and some reactions of ground state molecules and ions on the electron density is not large to explain the experimental result of the increase in the electron density in the plasma.