Analysis of Liquid Lithium as a Plasma Facing Component using LAMMPS Code

This research will analyze the interactions between a small amount of liquid lithium and hydrogen species impinging upon it using a full molecular-dynamics code LAMMPS. Previous research in this area has used coupled Monte-Carlo simulations and two-dimensional REDEP/WBC codes primarily for attempting to model full reactor scale interactions between a solid lithium wall (Ruzic, David N. 2003). Other research has used TRIM (Transport of Ions in Matter), a binary collision approximation, derivatives to determine the retention coefficients and sputtering yields of D+ species on solid lithium (Qiu, Hua-Tan 2005). In addition, research as covered the surface chemistry of lithiated carbon PFCs (Kristic, P.S. 2018). This current research will look at sputtering and retention of hydrogen in lithium at smaller time scales, various plasma conditions. The LAMMPS molecular dynamics simulation will be used to model small scale interactions between the liquid lithium and H+, or D+ ions. LAMMPS is able to simulate small length and time scale interactions allowing a detailed analysis of the interactions between the liquid lithium plasma facing components and the plasma ions.