Comparative qualification of advanced plasma-facing materials for fusion pilot plants through public- and private-sector experiments in DIII-D

Summary

arXiv:2607.23400v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: A coordinated DIII-D campaign exposed and comparatively assessed 44 advanced plasma-facing materials from 12 institutions, including four public-private fusion partnerships, to support fusion pilot plant wall and divertor material down-selection. Samples were exposed using the Divertor Materials Evaluation System (DiMES) under Ohmic, L-mode, and H-mode conditions with edge-localized modes, at 0.2-2.5 MW m$^{-2}$ on flush geometries and 10-15 MW m$^{-2}$ on 10$^{\circ}$ angled geometries. Engineered tungsten architectures retained integrity; long-fiber Wf/W showed the clearest crack-arrest behavior.