Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian rate coefficients of the tungsten ions: W46+–W55+

Abstract

Abstract This study focuses on the significance of suprathermal (‘hot’) electrons in the tokamak device. Hot electrons, which follow a non-Maxwellian energy distribution, are high-energy electrons that exert a substantial influence on various processes taking place within the plasma. Our aim was to investigate the influence of non-Maxwellian distribution on the rate coefficients of highly charged tungsten ions. This paper presents Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian electron impact ionization rate coefficients for W46+ to W55+ ions. The cross sections were calculated using the fully relativistic flexible atomic code with level-to-level distorted-wave method. We found that even for a small fraction of hot electrons, the contribution of hot electrons to the rate coefficients is still dominant at low bulk temperature.