Open Access

Richard Christian Bergmayr

• Collisional-radiative (CR) models for molecular hydrogen are crucial for the quantitative analysis of molecular emission from low-temperature plasmas (e.g. as diagnostic for particle temperatures and densities) and are suited to calculate effective rate coefficients to be used in neutral transport codes for fusion divertor plasma predictions. The accuracy of CR model predictions is limited by the availability of accurate reaction probabilities as model input. Recent advances in molecular input data enable considerable improvements in the model prediction capabilities. In this work a combined multi-stage approach is pursued to develop and benchmark differently resolved population models for molecular hydrogen for dedicated applications with the aim of providing CR models and state-of-the-art reaction probability databases for the plasma community and future fusion device predictions. The models developed are benchmarked with measurements from small scale laboratory experiments, theCollisional-radiative (CR) models for molecular hydrogen are crucial for the quantitative analysis of molecular emission from low-temperature plasmas (e.g. as diagnostic for particle temperatures and densities) and are suited to calculate effective rate coefficients to be used in neutral transport codes for fusion divertor plasma predictions. The accuracy of CR model predictions is limited by the availability of accurate reaction probabilities as model input. Recent advances in molecular input data enable considerable improvements in the model prediction capabilities. In this work a combined multi-stage approach is pursued to develop and benchmark differently resolved population models for molecular hydrogen for dedicated applications with the aim of providing CR models and state-of-the-art reaction probability databases for the plasma community and future fusion device predictions. The models developed are benchmarked with measurements from small scale laboratory experiments, the negative ion source test facility BATMAN Upgrade, the divertor plasma simulator Magnum-PSI and the DIII-D tokamak.…