Optimization of Wall-Conditioning Techniques on the MT-II Tokamak

The MT-II is a small spherical tokamak that is currently under construction at the Pakistan Tokamak Plasma Research Institute. Wall conditioning of the MT-II vacuum vessel (VV) is an essential step to achieve a good quality vacuum for plasma experiments. This study presents an overview of the wall-conditioning techniques implemented on the MT-II VV, including baking and glow discharge cleaning (GDC). Prior to wall conditioning, the system is checked via a helium leak test machine and residual gas analyzer (RGA) to identify and remove leaks. The VV walls are baked at ~180 °C to get rapid desorption of water vapors and other impurities. After the baking process, the partial pressure of most of the carbon- and oxygen-containing impurities is reduced. In particular, the partial pressure of water vapors is reduced by 93%. Consequently, the total leak and outgassing rate is significantly reduced. To further improve the vacuum condition in the vessel, hydrogen GDC is carried out. The fill hydrogen pressure and anode voltage are optimized to get a stable glow discharge. The RGA scan shows that GDC reduces the partial pressure of H₂O, O₂, and CO₂ by 57%, 63%, and 51%, respectively. The results signify that baking and GDC are effective techniques for wall conditioning of the MT-II VV.