Experimental and simulated argon spectra in the 2.3-3.4 nm region from tokamak plasmas

Experimental argon spectra in the 2.3-3.4 nm region from the Jet tokamak on a single null divertor configuration have been simulated. The spectra include lines from five ionization states, namely from Ar15+ Li-like to Ar11+ N-like ions. Collisional-radiative models have been constructed for these five Ar ions, considering electron collisional excitation and radiative decay as the populating processes of the excited states. These models give photon emission coefficients for the emitted lines at electron density and temperature values corresponding to the experimental situations. Impurity modelling is performed using a one-dimensional (1D) impurity transport code, calculating the steady-state radial distribution of the Ar ions. The Ar line brightnesses are evaluated in a post-processing subroutine and simulated spectra are obtained. The parts of the spectra corresponding to a single-ionization state do not depend on the experimental conditions and show good agreement except for the amplitude of the simulated 2s-3p Ar XVI line and the shape of the simulated 2.50 nm feature (composed of Ar XVI and Ar XV lines). On the other hand, the superposition of these spectra depends on the experimental conditions, as a consequence of the fact that the ion charge distribution depends not only on the radial profiles of the electron density and temperature, but also of the impurity transport coefficients. Simulations of the Ar spectra (including transport) give confidence in the atomic physics calculations; moreover, they allow the determination of the transport coefficients in the plasma region emitting the considered ionization states, i.e. at the interior of the last closed magnetic surface (LCMS). For a correct simulation of the amplitudes of the spectral features it is necessary to include a transport barrier inside the LCMS. As far as the atomic physics is concerned, we report improved wavelengths for Ar XV transitions and we benchmark photon emission coefficients for XUV transitions in highly ionized argon.