Malihe Omrani

Silicon as a light element can be used as the tokamak first wall coating in order to protect the plasma from impurities which come from the wall. In this paper, we deposit an amorphous-silicon layer by the use of the glow discharge technique on the wall surface of the test chamber made from SS316. To do so, we employ silane as a source of silicon ions. The siliconization process is conducted at two time durations of 90 and 150 min. SEM image of the coated surface shows that the structure of the coated layer deposited by the 150-min is more compact in comparison with that of 90-min. Effect of current density on coating properties is evaluated by placing four samples at different locations on the wall surface which shows that the optimal values of current density are in the range of 14–20 lA/cm2 and the higher range of current density can damage the coating. The results confirm that by increasing the time of siliconization the coating thickness is increased successfully from 100 to 250 nm without appearance of any damage in coating.