The erosion at the divertor plates in future fusion experiments such as ITER has to be reduced by redeposition in order to achieve an acceptable level of net erosion. The favourable effect of redeposition can be enhanced by exploiting the E*B drift motion of the ionized impurity ions in the electric sheath. By a suitable choice of the magnetic field direction and geometry, the peak net erosion at the divertor plates can be minimized. A simple relation has been derived that allows an estimation of the peak net erosion concerning all important effects: erosion by the plasma ions, self-sputtering, prompt redeposition and redeposition due to the upstreaming plasma flow
An improved understanding of the roles of atomic processes and power balance in divertor target ion current loss during detachment