The description of secondary electron emission, as presented by plasma-material interaction fusion compendia, is demonstrated to be outdated both in its theoretical and experimental aspects. As a consequence, the recommended treatment leads to a strong overestimation of the secondary electron emission yields for tokamak relevant materials. Reliable experimental data-sets, in fusion energy ranges, are identified after a detailed review of a recently updated electron-solid interaction database and previously published experimental results. A novel semi-empirical approach is proposed for the description of the secondary electron emission yield. Application of the approach for a large number of solids reveals an unprecedented agreement with experimental data. The present results can serve as a reliable input for future quantitative investigations of the effect of secondary electron emission on various aspects of scrape-off-layer physics.
Upper hybrid emission from a magnetized gas discharge plasma