The HTPD 2018 conference information can be found at the following link:
A full-scale ITER toroidal interferometer and polarimeter (TIP) prototype has been constructed and tested both in the laboratory and on the DIII-D tokamak. The TIP prototype measures electron density using two approaches. Two-color interferometry is carried out at 10.59μm and 5.22μm using a CO2 and Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) respectively while a separate polarimetry measurement of the plasma induced Faraday effect, is made at 10.59μm. High-resolution TIP phase information is obtained using an FPGA based phase demodulator and precision clock source. The TIP is also equipped with a piezo tip/tilt stage active feedback alignment system which minimizes noise and maintains diagnostic alignment indefinitely. A 120 m path length laboratory prototype was used to test components and demonstrate alignment techniques, feedback alignment capabilities, and determine diagnostic noise floors. Phase errors of 1.5 degrees for the interferometer and 0.06 degrees for the polarimeter have been demonstrated for 1000 seconds. The system is now operational on the DIII-D tokamak, using a geometry and path length similar to ITER, and has successfully demonstrated the ITER requirements for both interferometry and polarimetry. Work supported by U.S. DOE Contracts DE-AC-02-09CH11466 and DE-FC02-04ER54
A novel optical spectrometer was built that enables measurements of Thomson scattering from electron plasma waves with 2-ps time resolution. Pulse-front tilt introduced from a diffraction grating scales with aperture diameter and can limit the achievable time resolution of a streaked spectrometer. The spectrometer presented in this work uses an echelon optic to break the aperture into series of temporally delayed segments that compensate for the large-scale optical path length asymmetry introduced by the grating. By decoupling the relationship between pulse-front tilt and aperture size, an optimized spectrometer design can be matched to the time resolution of the streak camera at an arbitrarily large throughput. The as-built streaked spectrometer operates with an effective aperture of f/3.3 with 1-nm spectral resolution covering a range of 460 nm to 590 nm and records spectra with 2-ps time resolution. The system has been implemented to study plasma heating rates of underdense plasmas by observing Thomson scattering from electron plasma waves. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
A novel combined diagnostic capable of measuring multiscale density fluctuations that extend from MHD to the lower-ETG range has been designed, installed, and operated at DIII-D. The combined diagnostic was constructed by adding a heterodyne interferometer to the pre-existing phase contrast imaging (PCI) system, both of which measure line-integrated electron-density fluctuations. The port-space footprint is minimized by using a single CO2 laser and a single beampath. With temporal bandwidths in excess of 1 MHz, the PCI measures high-k (1.5 cm^{-1} < |k_R| < 25 cm^{-1}) fluctuations with sensitivity 3e13 m^{-2} / \sqrt{kHz}, while the interferometer simultaneously measures low-k (|k_R| < 5 cm^{-1}) fluctuations with sensitivity 3e14 m^{-2} / \sqrt{kHz}. The intentional mid-k overlap has been empirically verified with sound-wave calibrations and has allowed quantitative investigation of the cross-scale coupling predicted to be significant in the reactor-relevant T_e ~ T_i regime. Further, via toroidal correlation with DIII-D's primary interferometer, the toroidal mode numbers of core-localized MHD have been measured. *Work supported by USDOE under DE-FG02-94ER54235, DE-FC02-04ER54698, and DE-FC02-99ER54512.
A digital holography (DH) surface erosion/deposition diagnostic is being developed for 3D imaging of plasma facing component (PFC) surfaces in situ and in real time. Digital holography is a technique that utilizes lasers reflected from a material surface to form an interferogram, which carries information about the topology of the surface when reconstructed. As described in this paper, dual CO2 lasers at 9.271 and 9.250 microns illuminate the interrogated surface (at a distance of ~ 1 m) in a region of ~ 1 cm x 1 cm. The surface feature resolution is ~ 0.1 mm in the plane of the surface, and the depth resolution ranges from ~ 0.001 to ~2 mm perpendicular to the surface. The depth resolution lower limit is set by single-laser and detector optical limitations, while the upper limit is determined by 2 pi phase ambiguity of the dual-laser synthetic wavelength. Measurements have been made “on the bench” to characterize the single-laser and dual-laser DH configurations utilizing standard resolution targets and material targets that were previously exposed to high flux plasmas either in the Prototype Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (Proto-MPEX) or electro-thermal (ET) arc source. Typical DH measurements were made with 0.03 ms integration with an IR camera that can be framed at rates approaching 1.5 kHz. The DH diagnostic system is progressing towards in situ measurements of plasma erosion/deposition either on Proto-MPEX or the ET arc source.
The Magnetic Recoil neutron Spectrometer (MRS) at the OMEGA laser facility has been routinely used to measure deuterium-tritium (DT) yield and areal density in cryogenically layered implosions since 2008. Recently, operation of the OMEGA MRS in higher-resolution mode with a smaller, thinner (4 cm2, 57-um thick) CD conversion foil has also enabled inference of the apparent DT ion temperature (Tion) from MRS data. Tion inferred from the broadening of the MRS-measured primary DT neutron spectrum compares well with neutron time-of-flight-measured Tion. This result is important as it demonstrates good understanding of the different systematics associated with the two independent measurements. The MRS resolution in this configuration (sigma=0.37 MeV) is still higher than required for a high-precision Tion measurement. In this contribution, we also discuss paths forward for further improving the resolution of the OMEGA MRS, including fielding a smaller foil closer to target chamber center. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy and by the Laboratory of Laser Energetics under Contract 415935-G.
Metallic first mirrors will be components for optical spectroscopy and imaging systems in ITER. A comprehensive First Mirror Test (FMT) was carried out in JET with the ITER-Like Wall (ILW): over 60 Mo mirrors facing plasma in the main chamber and in divertor during three ILW campaigns (up to 62 h total). Reflectivity measurements (300-2400 nm) and surface characterization with electron and ion spectroscopy were done before and after exposure. Total reflectivity of mirrors from the main chamber wall is decreased by 2-3% from the initial value. Surfaces are coated by a thin co-deposit (5-15 nm) containing D, Be, C and O. This affected the optically active layer (15-20 nm on Mo) thus leading to the increase of diffuse reflectivity by a factor of 1-2. All mirrors from the divertor (inner, outer, base) lost reflectivity by 20-80%. This result confirms earlier findings, but there are significant differences in the surface state dependent on the mirror location and exposure time, i.e. either single or all three ILW campaigns. This is caused by beryllium-rich deposits. The thickest layers are in the outer divertor: 850 nm. Other elements also are in deposits on all divertor mirrors: O, C, W, and Ni. The comparison between results from JET with carbon and metal wall will be presented.
The behavior of 1 MeV triton has been studied in order to understand alpha particle confinement property in toroidal devices. Time-resolved triton burnup study has been performed by scintillating fiber detectors (Sci-Fi) in large tokamaks [1] and helical systems [2]. The time-integrated triton burnup ratio was successfully measured by activation foils technique in medium sized tokamak [3, 4]. To obtain time evolution of 14 MeV neutron rate under the neutron emission rate of 10^13 n/s to 10^14 n/s in KSTAR, we designed high detection efficiency Sci-Fi having a diameter (f) of 160 mm. In the head of detector1, 2000 scintillating fibers having f of 1 mm and length of 50 mm are embedded, whereas 1000 scintillating fibers having f of 2 mm and length of 50 mm are embedded in the head of detector2. The detection efficiency of those detectors is expected to be one order higher than the detectors used in large tokamaks [1]. Experimental results performed using an accelerator-based neutron generator in Fast Neutron Laboratory and OKTAVIAN will be reported.[1] Barnes C. W. et al 1998 Nucl. Fusion 38 597.[2] K. Ogawa et al., submitted to Nuclear Fusion.[3] J. Jo. et al 2016 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87 11D828.[4] M. Hoek et al., IPP-Report IPP 1/320 March 1999.
We report tests of an alternate technique for constraining MHD equilibrium analysis in tokamak plasmas using internal magnetic field measurements based on |B| measurements from motional Stark splitting of Dα spectral lines emitted by a neutral heating beam (MSE-LS). We compare results using MSE-LS with those of the standard equilibrium analysis technique based on line polarization of the Dα emission (MSE-LP). An alternative to MSE-LP is needed in future devices such as ITER where MSE-LP will be difficult due to plasma-induced coating of the first optical element. The tests utilized data from 10 DIII-D shots with 7 MSE-LS and 14 MSE-LP views covering a range of radii along the outer midplane of the plasma. Seven MSE-LS measurements can contribute significantly to equilibrium reconstruction of pressure and q profiles using both synthetic and experimental DIII-D MSE-LS data. For example, 7 MSE-LS plus seven MSE-LP measurements give a fit quality that is as good as the same cases with 14 MSE-LP measurements. Analyzing synthetic data for 14 MSE-LS measurements shows significant improvement in fitting quality over the case with 7 MSE-LS locations. This work supported by DoE DE-FC02-04ER54698 and DE-AC02-09CH11466.
Inertial confinement fusion self-emission imaging provides a challenging environment for two-dimensional time resolved x-ray imaging. The short lived (~200 ps) spherical implosion dynamically evolves throughout the deuterium-tritium (DT) compression. Current microscopes with ~10 µm spatial resolution and 20-100 ps time resolution provide sufficient information to infer hot spot volume and emissivity under certain physical constraints. The introduction of high-atomic number materials as shell dopants, in conjunction with the susceptibility of the implosion to seeded hydrodynamic growth, has led to continued observations of high-spatial-frequency x-ray bright spots that evolve internally to the hot DT core. We wish to determine the origin and nature of these features through the application of higher resolution x-ray microscopes. This goal requires addressing both the image forming system and the detector resolution and statistics, in addition to the physics we hope to infer. With new reflective x-ray optics and coded aperture imaging being considered alongside the next generation of fast x-ray detectors, this paper addresses the instrument design requirement to measure ‘bright spot’ features at the NIF. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LLNL-ABS-744014.
Thomson scattering (TS) system is one of the useful diagnostics to measure electron temperature and density in fusion plasmas. The multi-pass Thomson scattering (MPTS) system is useful technique for increasing the TS signal intensities and improving the TS diagnostic time resolution. The MPTS system developed in GAMMA 10/PDX has a polarization-based configuration with an image relaying system. The MPTS system has been constructed for enhancing the Thomson scattered signals for the improvement of measurement accuracy and the MHz sampling time resolution. However, in the normal MPTS system, the MPTS signal intensities decrease with the pass number, because of the damping due to the constructed optical components. Then we have been developing the new MPTS system with the laser amplification system. The laser amplification system can improve the degraded laser power after six passed in the multi-pass system to the initial laser power. We successfully obtained the continued multi-pass signals after the laser amplification system in the gas scattering experiments for the first time.
Charge exchange spectra from the interaction of fully ionized Carbon impurity ions and injected neutral beam on EAST have been utilized to provide the plasma ion temperature and rotation velocity since the cCXRS was installed on EAST at 2014. However, the concentration of carbon became especially low on EAST with the tungsten divertor in the latest experimental campaign, it is necessary to investigate the CX lines from the other impurity ions. The cCXRS system was enhanced recently to extend its wavelength coverage and preserve the spatial channels at the same time. A pixel, back-illuminated frame-transfer CCD camera with on-chip multiplication gain was used. The bandpass filter centered on 529.1nm was removed and one entrance slit was used to enable a wide spectral band at one acquisition, and the emission lines of CVI at 529.1 nm, of NeX at 524.9 nm, and of LiIII at 516.7 nm could be observed simultaneously. The system contains 29 channels, and one channel is used for the real-time wavelength calibration. The simultaneous measurement of CVI, NeX, and LiIII lines was performed by puffing neon gas and dropping lithium power at the same time during the 2016 EAST experimental campaign. In the paper, the experimental hardware is described and preliminary measurements will be shown.
Self-sustaining fusion plasmas must be maintained by the power transfer from fusion born alpha particles to the thermal plasmas during slowing down process. Thus, the confinement of energetic alpha particles is crucial for a thermonuclear reactor in the future. The fast ions are primarily generated by applying auxiliary heating systems such as neutral beam injection and ion cyclotron resonance heating in current experiments. The information of the fast ions can be accessed by different fast-ion diagnostic systems. The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are given by so-called weight functions. The Time-Of-Flight Enhanced Diagnostics (TOFED) neutron spectrometer has been installed at EAST tokamak to perform advanced neutron emission spectroscopy (NES) diagnosis of deuterium plasmas. Here, instrument-specific weight functions of TOFED were presented by taking the instrumental response into account. The velocity-space sensitivity of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFED can be directly determined by the calculated weight functions.
While xenon is the standard propellant for a wide range of plasma thrusters, xenon is expensive and xenon propellant systems require heavy compressed gas tanks, pressure regulators, and other bulky hardware. Iodine has similar mass and is much easier to acquire than xenon. Iodine’s natural state of matter at room temperature is solid and is easily sublimated to gas with a simple heating element. This advantage for iodine is also a significant challenge when developing gas handling systems for iodine. Another challenge for iodine thrusters is a lack of well-defined spectroscopic diagnostics for single ionized iodine, specifically, a lack of a demonstrated laser induced fluorescence (LIF) scheme. We present emission spectroscopy measurements of iodine ion emission from the 6p^5P_3-5d^5 D_4^o transition at 695.868 nm and the 6p^5P_3-6s^5S_2^o transition at 516.12 nm as a function of microwave power for a microwave excited iodine plasma in a sealed quartz cell at a pressure of 1 mTorr. The 5d^5D_4^o state is metastable and was identified by Hargus et al. [48th AIAA Joint Propulsion, 2012] as a strong candidate for an iodine ion LIF scheme. We will also present preliminary LIF measurements using this three-level scheme with a tunable dye laser operating at 695.878 nm.
Streaked Thomson scattering measurements have been performed on plasma jets created from a 15 µm thick radial Al, Ti, or Cu foil load on COBRA, a 1 MA pulsed power machine. The streaked system enables collecting scattered light from two separate laser pulses separated in time by between 3 and 14 ns. This time difference is created by splitting the initial 3 ns duration, 10 J, 526.5 nm laser beam into two separate pulses, each with 2.5 J. Both energy laser pulses are shown to heat the plasma jet by inverse bremsstrahlung radiation, as measured by the streaked Thomson scattering system. Analysis of the streak camera image showed that the electron temperature of the Al jet was increased from 20 eV up to 50 eV within about 2 ns for both laser pulses. The Ti and Cu jets both showed heating as well as sharp and complicated ion-acoustic features that were not apparent in the Al jet. Results will be presented from imaging two different fibers that viewed the plasma jet from two different scattering angles on the streak camera entrance slit simultaneously to compare temperature measurements and have a measure of the plasma density [Froula et al. PRL 2005].This research is supported by the NNSA Stewardship Sciences Academic Programs under DOE Cooperative Agreement DE-NA0001836.
A pulse dilation photo-multiplier tube (PD-PMT) is a newly developed capability, which improves on the temporal resolution of conventional PMTs by approximately an order of magnitude. The corresponding gains in detail of inertial confinement fusion burn histories (10's of picoseconds wide in experiments in the National Ignition Facility), could be used to distinguish overlapping burn histories of different reactants.A PD-PMT uses a decreasing voltage ramp to apply a time varying e-field acceleration to electrons generated by a photocathode to stretch the signal in time (dilate). As earlier electrons are accelerated more than later electrons, the signal is dilated to improve resolution in a short (~ns) time window. A production PD-PMT was characterised at the Orion laser using the Optical Pulse Generator of the short pulse lasers. The PD-PMT was tested by varying operating parameters, input laser pulses, separations of a laser input pulses, and the position of the input laser pulses relative to the start of the ramped voltage (dilation window scan). As well varying the input intensity to quantify the linearity, and translating an apertured beam across the photocathode to assess the spatial uniformity. This poster will outline the characterised performance of the PD-PMT.
We have developed a Wolter x-ray imager on the Z Machine to study the emission of warm x-ray sources with x-ray energies above 15 keV. As x-ray energy increases, imaging these sources with both high resolution and signal-to-noise becomes increasingly difficult using existing pinhole camera techniques. A Wolter optic has been adapted from observational astronomy and medical imaging for Z and uses curved x-ray mirrors to form a 2D image of a source with 5x5x5mm FOV and measured 180-μm resolution on-axis. The mirrors consist of a multilayer that is tuned to allow x-rays within a narrow energy band to be collected by the optic. This multilayer, along with the larger collection solid angle makes the Wolter optic much more efficient at imaging x-rays compared to a traditional pinhole camera. Here we present the experimental design and implementation of the Wolter x-ray imager on Z, which is initially optimized to view Mo K-alpha x-rays (17.5 keV). In addition, we present a brief overview of its measured imaging performance and considerations for image deblurring.
Optical Thomson scattering (OTS) can be used to provide temporally and spectrally-resolved information on under-dense, high temperature plasmas. Scattering from the high-frequency collective excitations of the electrons can be used to constrain the temperature and number density of the electrons based on the width, amplitude and location of resonances in the scattered spectrum. The ion acoustic spectral features provide estimates of the ion and electron temperature ratio as well as the plasma mean ionisation state. These spectra can be streaked allowing the time evolution of the plasma conditions to be studied. In this presentation we discuss the development of an OTS diagnostic for the Orion laser system at AWE, UK. A 3ω probe beam will be used and the light scattered by the volume of plasma under study will be collected using a reflective telescope system. Light from the ion and electron features can be split into two spectrometers, one covering the narrow bandwidth of the acoustic waves with high resolution and a second spectrometer to cover the broader wavelength range of the plasma waves. Time resolved data can then be obtained by relaying the spectrally resolved signal onto an optical streak camera. © British Crown Owned Copyright 2018/AWE
Several compact neutron spectrometers are now installed at EAST to obtain the information of fuel ions produced in core plasmas. Here, a stilbene and an NE213 liquid scintillator neutron spectrometers will be discussed. Both of the spectrometers have a horizontal line of sight, while at different positions, and are proved to show good performance when the NBI auxiliary heating system is applied. Taking the response function into consideration, the velocity-space sensitivities given by the instrument-specific weight function of the beam-thermal part of neutron energy spectra in D-D plasma are derived for both the spectrometers. This method is supposed to make it possible to directly determine the contribution from a given velocity-space distribution of the fast ions to the measurement results.
The one-dimensional imager of neutrons (ODIN) at the Sandia Z facility consists of a 10-cm block of tungsten with rolled edges, creating a slit imager width of either 250, 500, or 750 µm. Designed with a 1-m neutron imaging line of sight, we achieve about 4:1 magnification and 500-µm axial spatial resolution. The baseline ICF concept at Sandia is magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF), which nominally creates a 1-cm line source of neutrons. ODIN was designed to determine the size, shape, and location of the neutron producing region, furthering the understanding of compression quality along the cylindrical axis of magnetized liner implosions. Challenges include discriminating neutron images from hard x-rays and gammas with adequate signal-to-noise in the 2e12 DD neutron yield range, as well as understanding the neutron response function through the imager to various imaging detectors (namely CR-39). Modeling efforts were conducted with MCNP6.1 to determine neutron response functions for varying configurations in a clean DD neutron environment (without x-rays or gammas). Configuration alterations that will be shown include rolled-edge slit orientation and slit width, affecting resolution and response function.Work supported by DOE NNSA contract DE-NA0003525.
The Prototype Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (Proto-MPEX) is a linear plasma device designed to generate divertor-like conditions, yielding electron densities up to ~1020 m-3 and electron temperatures up to ~20 eV. Monochromatic and color Edgertronic Sanstreak SC1 fast visible cameras capture high speed video (<18k fps) of plasma discharges. A 50/50 beam splitter allows both cameras to image the same region of the discharge. Concurrent multi-camera 2D line-integrated images were made of two or more emission line fields using narrow-band transmission filters. The deuterium Balmer series dominates the visible emission spectra from Proto-MPEX, confirmed via broadband spectrally resolved measurements. Under certain conditions, such as gas puffing, impurity line emissions were observed. Spatial features from multiple spectral line images were compared. Also, a uniform intensity white light source was used to calibrate pixel-to-pixel and absolute intensities. From this, the Dα, Dβ, and Dγ intensity ratio 2D fields and the 2D n0 and ne fields were estimated. Comparisons were drawn between line-integrated and Abel inverted emission (r,z) profiles. Discussion includes the limitations of the multi-camera technique and measured plasma material interactions (PMI) at the target plate.
The ECE diagnostic on EAST has been recently upgraded to provide better radial coverage of the plasma and to obtain higher spatial resolution. The lower limit of the frequency band was extended from 104 GHz to 97 GHz by adding a new 8-channel radiometer system, and this ensures a capability of measuring the second harmonic ECE with toroidal magnetic field down to 1.75 T. Also, the existing 32-channel radiometer has been upgraded, with the frequency interval for the lower frequency range up to 120 GHz reduced from 2 GHz to 1 GHz by introducing eight channels in the intermediate frequency part. In addition, a plan is presented to incorporate tunable YIG filters into the existing radiometer system to obtain detailed measurements of the electron temperature gradient scale length as well as finer spatial pinpointing of MHD modes. Examples from DIII-D are provided where similar high resolution channels allowed more precise measurement of the center and width of neoclassical tearing modes. *This work is supported by the National Magnetic Confinement Fusion Science Program of China under Contract No. 2015GB101000 and 2015GB103000 and US Department of Energy under contracts DE-FG02-97ER54415, DE-FC02-04ER54698 and DE-SC0010500.
The ITER TIP system requires real time phase demodulation of several radio-frequency (RF) signals to provide accurate electron density measurements essential for plasma control. This is accomplished using a four-channel digital phase demodulator (DPD) constructed using a high-density Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) coupled to high-speed analog-to-digital converters (ADC). The DPD samples signals from four optical detectors each containing frequencies at 4, 40, and 44MHz. Digital signal processing (DSP) techniques are used to separate the three frequencies and measure their phase. Two versions of DPDs have been constructed and tested on the DIII-D TIP system. The first was fabricated using a Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA development board, a high-speed ADC module from Analog Devices, and custom hardware from Palomar Scientific Instruments. The second was assembled using ITER-approved components from National Instruments. The FPGA implementation for both versions was designed using Matlab System Generator and the VHDL programming language. Both systems have been shown to provide phase measurements with better than 0.01º accuracy at 500kHz bandwidth. Work supported by U.S. DOE Contracts DE-AC-02-09CH11466 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
Polarimetric Thomson scattering (TS) is a diagnostic technique useful to increase the accuracy of Te and ne measurements in very hot fusion plasmas such as those of ITER. As for conventional TS the calibration of a polarimetric TS detection system can be performed by using a radiation source internal to the vacuum chamber or, alternatively, Raman scattering from N2 gas filling the vacuum vessel. These calibration methods are thought to be too invasive in case of a large fusion experiment and therefore for conventional TS measurements in ITER self-calibrating techniques have been proposed by which, using two laser pulses of different wavelegth, the spectral sensitivity of the detection system can be continuously monitored during the experimental campaigns, without the need of invasive internal sources. In this paper we extend the concept of self-calibrating measurements to the polarimetric TS technique too. By exploiting the polarization properties of TS scattering light and two laser pulses of different polarization, we show that self-calibrating measurements are possible also for a TS detection system including polarimetric measurements and indicate simple methods for its implementation.
Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging (ECEI) is a diagnostics system which measures 2D electron temperature pro?les of high-temperature plasma. Magnetohydrodynamics(MHD) modes in fusion plasma can be quantitatively studied by of ECEI after calibration (fi?nding the proportional coe?cients of electron temperature to signal amplitude). Conventional calibrating methods are complecated and difficult to implement. In this paper we propose an self-dependent calibrating method for 24x16 channels high-resolution ECEI on EAST Tokamak based on the properties of data, in which the technique of shape matching is applied to solve for calibration coe?cients matrix. The calibrated area is further expanded to a occupation ratio of 88% detecting area by utilizing the features of sawtooth crash. The result is self-consistent and agrees with other experimental data, supporting the validity of this self-calibration approach.
An InfraRed imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) [1,2] that was previously used on the JT-60U device [3] was installed on KSTAR in 2012. The IRVB had a 2 micron x 7 cm x 9 cm Pt foil blackened with graphite and a 5 mm x 5 mm aperture located 7.5 cm from the foil and had 16 x 12 channels and a time resolution of 10 ms. In 2017 the IRVB was upgraded by replacing the IR camera with a FLIR SC7600 (InSb, 640 x 512 pixels, 105 fps, 25 mK). The aperture area was reduced by approximately half to 3.5 mm x 3.5 mm and the number of channels was quadrupled to 32 x 24. Assuming a uniformly radiating plasma of 15 m3 and 1 MW of radiated power and a viewing path length through the plasma of 3 m, the signal level on the foil was estimated to be 55 W/m2 in the previous case and 27 W/m2 with the upgrade. The resulting NEPDs (signal to noise ratios (SNR)) were 1.28 W/m2 (43) in the previous case and 2.35 W/m2 (12) with the upgrade. In the conference presentation synthetic images from SOLPS modelling will be compared with experimental images from the upgraded IRVB to give better estimates of the SNR. [1] B.J. Peterson, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 71(10) (2000) 3696. [2] B.J. Peterson et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74(3) (2003) 2040. [3] B.J. Peterson et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum.79 (2008) 10E301.
A tangential X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer (XICS) has been upgraded on J-TEXT tokamak to measure the electron/ion temperature and the plasma toroidal rotation velocity. The XICS has been designed to receive emissions of Ar XVII from −13 cm to +13 cm region with a spatial resolution of 1.8 cm in the vertical direction. The temporal evolution of Ar impurity density profiles after an argon gas puff could be observed with a time resolution of up to 2 ms. The emissions of Ar XVII can be modulated by the resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) which indicates that the transport of Ar is affected by the RMP significantly. The 2/1 RMPs can lead to field penetration with enough RMP amplitude. The XICS provides a tool for the study of the transport of Ar impurities during the penetration of RMP. During the field penetration phase, the emissions of Ar XVII decreased and the profile of Ar XVII became narrow. The phenomena show that the transport of Ar impurity in the core region has been enhanced during the field penetration phase.
Multi-channel soft x-ray (SX) diagnostic has been used as a main diagnostic in fusion plasma devices to research MHD phenomena. Semiconductors have been widely used as SX diagnostic in magnetic confinement devices. However, it is difficult to use semiconductors in high neutron flux environment, such as deuterium plasma experiments of LHD, without radiation shielding. Therefore, a new type of SX diagnostic, scintillator-based SX diagnostic has been developed in LHD and EAST. In this type of the diagnostic, an SX from plasma is converted to visible light by the scintillator. The light is then guided to a remote location and measured there by detectors. In this article, first results of scintillator-based SX diagnostic with P47 scintillator in deuterium plasma experiments of LHD and in EAST are reported. The multi-channel system in LHD have observed the fluctuation by MHD instabilities then it can be said that the system have worked as multi-channel SX diagnostic. In EAST, there are two channels for scintillator-based SX diagnostics where one of two channels has SX shield. By comparing two channels, effect of neutrons and gamma-rays can be estimated experimentally. The examination of method to design scintillator-based SX diagnostics have been performed in EAST.
Doppler backscattering (DBS) system is a powerful diagnostic for turbulence and ExB flow measurements on tokamaks and other magnetic confinement devices. A W-band multi-channel DBS system has been developed on EAST for the turbulence measurements in core plasma. The DBS system can provide six spatially localized measurement locations by simultaneously launching six frequency probe beams with a fixed frequency difference, and the center frequency can scan in W-band (75-108 GHz) with X-mode polarization. The incidence angle is from -8 to 12 degree, and can cover the wave number range 2-20/cm. The radial location coverage is depended on the parameter of discharge, and can always cover the range from the top of pedestal to the core of plasma.
The WEST (Tungsten [W] Environment in Steady-state Tokamak) tokamak aims at testing ITER divertor components to minimize risks for ITER divertor procurement and operation. It consists in a major upgrade of the superconducting medium size tokamak Tore Supra resulting in changing the circular magnetic configuration to a divertor configuration and implementing an ITER like actively cooled Tungsten divertor. Such modification has required rebuilding a full set of magnetic diagnostics to ensure the plasma boundary reconstruction, the plasma magnetic control and diamagnetic and MagnetoHydroDynamics measurements. For that purpose a set of 460 sensors has been integrated into the WEST vacuum vessel. After a brief description of the magnetic diagnostic specifications and integration, the paper discusses the commissioning of the diagnostic and the comparison with free boundary code reconstruction. The real time data processing providing the main plasma parameters is also presented. It is based on a description of the magnetic flux on a toroidal harmonic basis and is lasting less than 2 ms. The Simulink simulation framework used to test the equilibrium reconstruction and to develop the plasma controllers is described. Then results on plasma experiments and diagnostic performance are shown.
The new C-2W experiment (also called “Norman”) at TAE Technologies, Inc. studies the evolution of field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas sustained by neutral beam injection. Data on the FRC plasma performance is provided by a comprehensive suite of diagnostics that includes over 600 magnetic sensors, four interferometer systems, multi-chord far-infrared polarimetry, two Thomson scattering systems, ten types of spectroscopic measurements, multiple fast imaging cameras with selectable atomic line filters, bolometry, reflectometry, neutral particle analyzers, and fusion product detectors. Most of these diagnostic systems are newly built using experience and data from the preceding C-2U experiment [1] to guide the design process. In addition, extensive ongoing work focuses on advanced methods of measuring the internal FRC magnetic field profile to facilitate equilibrium reconstruction and active control of the plasma. 1] M. C. Thompson et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11D435 (2016)
A new reciprocating scintillator-based fast-ion loss detector (FILD)1 has been installed a few centimeters above the outer divertor of the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak and between two of its lower ELM mitigation coils. The detector head containing the scintillator screen, Faraday cup, calibration lamp and collimator systems are installed on a motorized reciprocating system that can adjust its position via remote control in between plasma discharges. Orbit simulations are used to optimize the detector geometry and velocity-space coverage. The scintillator image is transferred to the light acquisition systems outside of the vacuum via a lenses relay (embedded in a 3D-printed titanium holder) and an in-vacuum image guide. A Charge Couple Device (CCD) camera, for high velocity-space resolution, and an 8x8 channels Avalanche Photo Diode (APD) camera, for high temporal resolution (up to 2MHz), are used as light acquisition systems. Initial results showing poloidally localized fast-ion losses due to Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) and externally applied 3D magnetic perturbations are discussed. Tomographic reconstruction techniques are used to infer the escaping ion velocity-space from direct measurements with unprecedented resolution. [1] M. Garcia-Munoz et al., RSI 80, 053503 (2009)
The Large Area Solid Radiochemistry (LASR) collector was deployed at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in 2017 to collect solid debris samples from NIF targets. The collector was a 20-cm vanadium foil (active area) fielded 50 cm from the NIF target chamber center. The foil was surrounded by a side enclosure, which was covered by an aluminum foil. After a shot, the vanadium and aluminum foils were removed and processed individually via radiation counting. The collector has applications for measuring nuclear data using the NIF capsule as an intense neutron source. LASR was fielded on two shots, both of which had a monolayer of 238U embedded in the capsule ablator 10 um from the inner surface. Fission and activation products produced via the interaction of 14-MeV fusion neutrons and 238U were collected using LASR. Subsequent analysis via gamma spectroscopy indicated that the distribution of fission products was not uniform, and the aluminum side foil collected more low- and high-mass wing fission products compared to the vanadium surface, which was enriched in peak and valley fission products. The results from these shots will be used to better design future nuclear data experiments at NIF.
A diagnostic has been fielded on OMEGA to diagnose cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) during implosions. Unabsorbed light from each laser beam is imaged as a “spot” in time-integrated images. Each spot is the end point of a beamlet that originates from a beam profile and follows a path determined by refraction. The intensity varies along that path as a result of absorption and CBET. This diagnostic allows for the investigation of the effects of CBET on laser energy from specific locations of the beam profile. The diagnostic records images in two time windows with each beamlet split into two orthogonal polarizations recorded on separate images, making it possible to determine the absolute polarization of each beamlet. When each beam is linearly polarized, CBET rotates the polarization of each beamlet. This diagnostic has provided the first evidence of polarization rotation caused by CBET during direct-drive implosions. A fully 3-D CBET hydrodynamics code postprocessor models the intensity, wavelength, and polarization of each beamlet along its path. The predicted images are compared to the images recorded by the new diagnostic. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
Crystal x-ray imaging is frequently used in inertial confinement fusion and laser-plasma interaction applications, as it has advantages compared to pinhole imaging, such as higher signal throughput, better achievable spatial resolution and chromatic selection. However, currently used x-ray detectors are only able to obtain a single time resolved image per crystal. The dilation aided single-line-of-sight x-ray camera described here, designed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) combines two recent diagnostic developments, the pulse dilation principle used in the dilation x-ray imager (DIXI) and a ns-scale multi-frame camera that uses a hold-and-readout circuit for each pixel (hCMOS). This enables multiple images to be taken from a single-line-of-sight with high spatial and temporal resolution. At the moment, the instrument can record two single-line-of-sight images with spatial and temporal resolution of 35 µm and down to 35 ps, respectively, with a planned upgrade doubling the number of images to four. Here we present the dilation aided single-line-of-sight camera for the NIF, including the x-ray characterization measurements obtained at the COMET laser and the results from the initial timing shot on the NIF. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LLNL-ABS-7439
Impurity injection can be a critical tool for studying impurity transport as well as in understanding physics of plasma-wall interactions in magnetic fusion. Impurity injection can also enable important diagnostic approaches such as spectroscopy and CHERS. While the speed limitations on gas injection and pellet injection are well known, electrostatic and electromagnetic injectors can overcome such limits and can in principle deliver impurity content in the km/s range. With this in mind, we have begun development of a high-voltage electrostatic dust injector, capable of launching large quantities of small (< 0.1 mm) particles to high speeds (>>100 m/s). This injector is an evolution of a design currently in use at the Univ. Colorado Dust Accelerator, a facility for planetary science and cosmic dust studies. The dust injector consists of a dust reservoir, a HV needle (or collection of needles), and a series of exit apertures. The reservoir holds approximately 1g of dust, and the apparatus is pulsed to 20 kV to charge and launch the particles. Studies are underway to maximize the mass flux achievable in such a design, through the optimization of the reservoir, needle, and aperture geometries, as well as the size distribution of the dust particles and the waveforms of the pulsed HV.
Certain crystal types have internal planes oriented such that they can be used as polarizing beam splitters at specific x-ray energies. Such a crystal can be used, for example, to measure the polarization of the spectral lines emitted by high-temperature plasmas. Generally, the polarization is caused by plasma anisotropy, and measuring it can provide insight into the mechanism that creates the anisotropy. Polarization measurements are possible using crystal planes with lattice spacing such that d√2 is close to the line wavelength, which ensures that the Bragg angle is in the vicinity of the perfectly polarizing 45°. The results of a systematic search for pairs of crystal planes and spectral lines that satisfy this polarization-splitting condition will be presented. The goal is to develop an instrument to measure and record simultaneous S and P polarizations of emitted x-rays in the 2–30 keV spectrum. This work was done by National Security Technologies, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25946, by Mission Support and Test Services, LLC, under Contract No. DE-NA0003624, and by Sandia National Laboratories under contract DE-NA-0003525 with the U.S. Department of Energy, and supported by the Site-Directed Research and Development Program. DOE/NV/03624--0021
The NIF Survey Spectrometer (NSS) which uses the Cauchois geometry has been installed on the Nation Ignition Facility. The NSS is used to measure and L-shell emission from Au Holhraums and K-shell emission from mid to high Z elements from backlighters and bright x-ray sources. The NSS is mounted on a port at the bottom of the chamber with a line of sight that is 37° from vertical. This location allows an unobstructed view of the various x-ray sources and into the laser entrance hole of Hohlraums. The spectrometer has four separate crystal channels that can be reconfigured as required. Currently, quartz transmission crystals with 2d = 8.512, 6.684, 2.750 and 1.624 Å are available. Emission from 6.5 to a few 100 keV can be measured with significant spectral overlap between each crystal channel. The dispersion has been calculated for the NIF geometry and agrees with the location of several filter K-edges routinely fielded in the filter packs. The resolution of the instrument is ~ 140 in first order at E(photon) = 13 keV. Instrument details, first light results and initial performance will be presented. This work was done under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Inertial confinement fusion experiments at NIF utilize a hohlraum, consisting of materials such as gold, uranium, aluminum and/or copper, that can provide potential diagnostic information when coupled with high-yield deuterium-tritium fueled shots. During such experiments, mega-joules of laser energy delivered inside the hohlraum results in its complete destruction and distribution of the material masses inside the target chamber. The collection and analysis of the scattered hohlraum debris are critical for the development of diagnostic capabilities. Previous diagnostics, such as Solid Radiochemistry (SRC), have relied on the collection of hohlraum debris by deploying large solid-angle collector systems to ensure sufficient amount of the hohlraum material was collected for providing a high-fidelity diagnostic measurement. In an effort to better understand the hohlraum debris distribution, we have performed several experiments at NIF where known amounts of various materials were mounted to the hohlraum. Results from these experiments, which will be presented in detail, indicate a strong geometric behavior of the post-shot hohlraum debris distribution.
A Beam Emission Spectroscopy system is being developed and deployed at the HL-2A tokamak to measure local low wavenumber (k_⊥ ρ_I<1) density fluctuations by observing Doppler-shifted emission from a 50 kV deuterium heating neutral beam. High spatial resolution (∆r≤1cm,∆z≤1.5cm) measurements are obtained with a 2 MHz sampling rate. An f/1.6, f=280 mm radiation-resistant in-vacuum objective lens couples with an off-axis field lens to image the beam to a curved surface with an appropriate angle for coupling to optical fibers. A 2x3 bundle of 1-mm diameter, 10-meter fibers conveys light for each spatial channel to detector arrays. A collimating lens passes light to a 1-nm bandwidth (659.2-660.2 nm, Doppler-shifted D-alpha emission) interference filter. An aspheric lens focuses light to a 2.65 mm square photodiode. High frequency, high-gain, low-noise preamplifiers sample the light intensity at a Nyquist frequency of 1 MHz with a high S/N ratio. A first set of 16 detector channels (12 plasma observing channels, configured in a 6(radial) x 2(poloidal) array) were installed and tested at HL-2A, covering the radial zone r/a=0.7~1.05. The frequency and wavenumber spectra have been measured during various plasma conditions, and primary measurements will be presented.
Injection of solid powders has been used in fusion research for various applications, including wall conditioning and pedestal control. Due to the physical properties of various materials, typically, a powder injector is designed and optimized to handle a specific kind of powder. We present a device for controlled injection of a variety of materials in form of powder. The system implements four independent feeder units, arranged as to share a vertical drop tube. Each unit consists of a 30 ml reservoir, coupled to a horizontal linear pad, where a layer of powder is advanced by piezo-electric agitation at a speed proportional to the applied voltage, until it falls into the drop tube. The dropper has been tested with a range impurities of low (B, BN, C), intermediate (Si, SiC) and high Z (Sn) and a variety of microscopic structures (flakes, spheres, rocks) and sizes (5-100 um). For low Z materials (e.g. B, BN), drop rates ~2-200 mg/s have been obtained with excellent linearity, repeatability and uniformity. A calibrated LED-based flow-meter allows measuring and monitoring the drop rate during operation. The fast-response of the four feeders allows combining long duration and pulsed injections, providing a flexible tool for controlled-dose impurity injection in fusion plasmas.
Recent indirect drive hohlraum designs for ignition targets on the National Ignition Factify (NIF) are exploring higher laser energy (~ 2 MJ) and power (500 TW) as a way of increasing neutron yield. A consequence is increased laser-plasma interactions (LPI), resulting in increased hot-electrons and cross-beam transfer that moves laser power between laser cones and backscatter in the form of stimulated Brillouin and stimulated Raman scattering (SBS and SRS). Accurate measurement of the backscattered light can give insight into the hohlraum plasma conditions and help quantify the amount of energy that is coupled into the hohlraum. Backscattered light is currently measured at NIF using a full aperture backscatter system (FABS) and near backscatter imager (NBI) instrument. Both diagnostics work in synergy to measure the backscattered energy, power, and temporal spectra evolution. In this work, we will present the current status of these diagnostics and discuss future improvements that will lead to more accurate results. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. LLNL-ABS-744433.
The bulk ion-temperature and neutron reaction history are important characteristics of a fusion plasma. Extracting these from a measured neutron-time-of-flight (nTOF) signal, either by convolution or de-convolution methods, requires accurate knowledge of the instrument response function (IRF). This work describes a novel method for obtaining the IRF directly for single D-T neutron interactions by utilizing n-alpha coincidence. The t(d, α)n nuclear reaction was produced at Sandia National Laboratories' Ion Beam Laboratory using a 300-keV Cockcroft-Walton generator to accelerate a 2-μA beam of 175-keV D+ ions into a stationary ErT2 target. The average neutron IRF was calculated by taking a time-corrected average of individual neutron events within an EJ-228 plastic scintillator. The scintillator was independently coupled to two photo-multiplier tubes operated in current-mode: a Hamamatsu 5928 mod-5 and a Photek PM240. The experimental set-up and experimental results will be discussed.Work supported by DOE NNSA contract DE-NA0003525.
The plasma current ramp-up and ramp-down that are always along with strong instabilities are the unavoidable processes in the tokamak operation. In order to research these processes in SUNIST(Sino-UNIted Spherical Tokamak), some diagnostic systems that detect the plasma radiation ranging from hard X-rays to visible light are developed. CdZnTe and Silicon drift detectors measure the energy spectrum of hard X-rays and soft X-rays coming from different positions of the plasma. A pinhole camera equipped with an AXUV-16ELG array photodiodes has been installed on the top of SUNIST to observe the radiation power loss and the MHD activities with high temporal and spatial resolution. The spectrum of vacuum ultraviolet is acquired by CCD camera and the intensity of some lines can be measured by PMT with scintillator. The full spectrum of the visible light can be acquired in every 3ms, and the intensity of some lines, such as H_α, H_β can be measured by filter scopes with high time response. Additionally, a Doppler broadening measurement system is developed to measure the ion temperature of edge plasma.
Thermonuclear burn history measurements are an important diagnostic of inertial fusion implosion performance, with several instruments developed based on the Cherenkov technique. Depending on the target composition and fuel, several nuclear reactions can produce g rays at different energies. We present a new technique that uses multiple detectors, with varied thresholds, to simultaneously measure multiple -ray burn histories with high relative precision. The first application of this technique has been to measure both DT and HT burn from deuterated plastic shell targets filled with H2+T2 gas and imploded on the OMEGA laser facility. These data will constrain models of material mixing from the shell into the fuel, and kinetic phenomena in implosions. Future applications, including measurements at the NIF, will be discussed.
A vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrometer spanning wavelength range 5-20 nm was commissioned on Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST), and wavelength calibration was conducted. The incident lights at 87° diffract at the 1200 g/mm concave grating and form a spectral image on the flat focal plane. A back-illuminated charge coupled device (CCD) of 2048 x 512 pixel array (13.5 x 13.5 μm2/pixel) observes the temporal evolution of spectrum during VEST discharge. A spectrum of oxygen and carbon impurity lines of VEST is predicted by OPEN-ADAS database and NIST database, and the wavelength calibration is carried out by the obtained spectrum and the wavelength positions on the flat-field focal plane. The electron density and temperature of VEST is estimated by comparing the ratio of the measured peaks with the predicted spectrum of carbon and oxygen in VEST using collisional radiative (CR) model and OPEN-ADAS database.
The electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostic system with a 48 channel D-band heterodyne radiometer has been routinely used to measure the electron temperature as well as its radial profile on the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak. However, because the overlap between the second and the third harmonic emission frequencies on the high-field side at 2.0 T is not avoidable, a 28 channel W-band heterodyne radiometer has been added to measure the electron temperature on the low-field side. As main components of a new radiometer, a 94 GHz local oscillator, two double-balanced mixers, and two bandpass filters (78-93 GHz and 95-110 GHz) are used to obtain two separate IF signals (1–16 GHz). Subsequently two sets of second down-conversion modules with a 7 GHz local source and 4 sets of 8 channel detector modules (2-9 GHz) with 1 GHz step are used. In this article, an overview of the upgraded ECE system and preliminary ECE measurements are presented.
Turbulence is an important issue in fusion plasmas as it was found to have a direct link to the particles and heat transports, and hence the confinement performance. In this paper, we report on a turbulence database that was built from measurements of Tore Supra core reflectometer [1] by parametrization of density fluctuation frequency spectra [2], including 350,000 spectra from 6,000 discharges, covering the global and local parameters.The characteristics of the broad band (BB) component of the spectra will be presented. In Ohmic plasmas, the reduction of the BB component in the central region is linked to the q=1 surface. In linear Ohmic confinement (LOC) regime, the BB component amplitude inside this basin is lower than in the saturated Ohmic confinement (SOC) regime. This basin might be explained by a drop of turbulence level inside q=1 surface. It disappears with increasing ICRH power. The shape of the BB component which is Gaussian on the outer side becomes triangular or Lorentzian on the inner side. This shape modification might be related to a modification of the turbulence structure.References [1] R. Sabot et al., Nucl. Fusion 46, S685-S692 (2006) [2] Y. Sun et al., the 13th international reflectometry workshop proceedings (2017)
Coherence imaging (CI) system has been developed to investigate the mechanism of the high-beta plasma formation in a laboratory magnetosphere and plasma particle transport that creates self-organization. The CI system is possible to measure 2D profile of ion temperature and flow velocity in RT-1 magnetospheric plasmas. The CI system utilizes the optical interference by a birefringent crystal instead of the dispersion by a grating. A CMOS image sensor captures an interferogram of He+ line (468 nm). Performing a fast Fourier transform on the interferogram extracts the intensity, the contrast, and the phase shift at each point, we can introduce the ion temperature and flow velocity from the quantities of the fringe contrast and phase with an instrumental phase, respectively. We successfully observed the 2D distribution of ion temperature in the magnetospheric plasma.
The outer vessel steady-state magnetic field sensors constitute a part of the ITER magnetic diagnostics. The sensor set consists of a poloidal array of 60 sensors placed on the vacuum vessel outer skin and distributed toroidally in three vacuum vessel sectors. Each sensor unit features a pair of metallic Hall sensors with a sensing layer made of bismuth measuring tangential and normal components of the magnetic field. Before the installation on ITER, the sensors will be calibrated in the magnetic field of a few mT, whereas the magnetic field to be measured by the sensors in ITER is up to a few T. A characteristic feature of the bismuth Hall sensors, found in earlier experiments, is the Hall coefficient exponential dependence on temperature and Gaussian dependence on the magnetic field. In the new experiment, the sensors were tested at magnetic field ranging from -12 T to +12 T and ITER relevant temperatures from room temperature to 130 °C, and the two-dimensional non-linear bismuth Hall coefficient function of temperature and magnetic field was found. These results allow constructing a model for the correct interpretation of the sensor calibration.
Along the route to the development of a neutral beam injector for ITER, the Padua based SPIDER and MITICA facilities will make use of neutron diagnostics to quantify the homogeneity of the neutral beam profile by measurements of the map of the neutron emission from the beam dump with ad hoc developed Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM). Neutrons are here born from beam target reactions between the beam and the deuterium ions previously adsorbed in the dump. In order to aid the interpretation of the diagnostic data, we have used the ELISE neutral beam test facility for a dedicated experiment on neutron emission from beam-target reactions in a range of parameters approaching that of SPIDER. A calibrated liquid scintillator detector has been employed to monitor neutron emission from a defocused beam and at increasing power densities on the dump. Compared to calculations based on the so called “local mixing model”, the experimental results show a discrepancy exceeding the statistical accuracy of the measurements and which increases as a function of the power density. The data are used to derive an empirical correction for applications to neutron measurements at SPIDER, where a liquid scintillator detector is now planned for installation as a monitor to complement the main GEM diagnostics.
Fast plasma boundary reconstruction is usually used for real-time control of tokamak plasma. In EAST experiment, the time consuming for boundary reconstruction should be within 1ms to meet the need of real-time control. Fast evolution of cameras in recent years has made them promising tools for diagnostics of Tokamak. The solution presented in this paper consists of a prototype of high-speed visible image acquisition and processing system(HVIAPs) dedicated for EAST tokamak shape and position control. Using the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) framework, a GPU and FPGA based parallel algorithm for plasma boundary reconstruction with visible imaging diagnostics is developed. Compared to the reconstruction of EFIT, the average error is 1.5cm. In particular, the parallelization of the visible image plasma boundary reconstruction for the NVIDIA Quadro GP100 can complete calculation within 0.3ms, achieving the speedup of 14 and 90 for an image size of 544×680, when compared with parallel C with OpenMP extensions and parallel MATLAB. Furthermore, when the camera sensor is not saturated, the algorithm is robust for different intensities of the plasma discharge image.
A high-resolving-power, streaked x-ray spectrometer is being developed and tested on the OMEGA EP Laser System to study temperature-equilibration dynamics in rapidly heated metal. The instrument is based on two diagnostic channels, each with a spherical Bragg crystal. Channel 1 couples a spherical Si220 crystal to an x-ray streak camera. Channel 2 couples a second, identical crystal to an x-ray charge-coupled device (CCD), allowing for photometric calibration of the time-resolved spectrum. The instrument covers the spectral range of 7.97 to 8.11 keV, centered on the Cu Ka1 line at 8.05 keV. The time-resolved spectrometer is designed to achieve a resolving power of 2000 and a temporal resolution of 2 ps. The instrument capabilities are demonstrated by resolving the Cu Ka1,2 doublet on high-power shots. Time-resolved Cu Kα spectra for a wide range of high-power laser and target interactions, where heating and Kα emission is generated by hot-electron-energy deposition, will be presented. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
Tungsten is an important alternative material to construct the divertor for Tokamak. Due to the effect of the interaction of plasma and the first wall, the first wall, especially the divertor area, will bear high energy to act on the area. Therefore, the detection and diagnosis of the first wall temperature of Tokamak by non-contact temperature measurement is the premise to ensure the safe and stable operation of the whole facility. However, in order to achieve high precision non-contact temperature measurement, we must accurately measure the emissivity of tungsten. In this paper, we built a set of emissivity measurement system and a new method for accurate calculation of emissivity is proposed. This method effectively eliminated the interference of background radiation and improves the accuracy of emissivity measurement. By using this method, the author measured the emissivity of tungsten under the conditions of different surface roughness in the range of 150°C to 500°C, and discussed the uncertainty of the experiment at the end.
A Simple near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer for 898 - 2130 nm has recently been applied to Heliotron J plasmas. It adopts symmetrical crossed Czerny-Turner mount equipped with a thermoelectrically cooled 512 channel InGaAs linear sensor. Reciprocal linear dispersion was deduced as 96.37 nm/mm at the center of the detector. Several types of the 2nd order rejection filter are inserted in the collection optics as needed. Calibration was performed together with a visible spectrometer using a tungsten halogen lamp and the result was compared with the intensity ratio of the Paschen α (1875 nm) and Balmer β (486 nm) lines, both of which have a common upper quantum level. The purpose of this study includes extending the wavelength region of the spectral monitor to less contaminated region. In the preliminary measurements, we observed the Paschen series for the hydrogen pellet injection plasma and two atomic helium lines, i.e. 2S-2P singlet and triplet lines, for Helium gas puffing experiments. A Continuum spectrum in this regime is entirely attributable to the blackbody radiation from the heat spots on the plasma-facing components. In addition, this may also be used to monitor if there are any significant background radiation in the YAG Thomson scattering signals near 1064 nm.
Recent breakthroughs in the fabrication of small-radii Wolter optics allow NNSA facilities to consider such optics as x-ray diagnostics at 15-50 keV. Recently, LLNL, SNL, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and NASA MSFC jointly developed and fabricated the first custom Wolter microscope for implementation in SNL’s Z machine with optimized sensitivity at 17.4 keV. To achieve spatial resolution of order 100-200 microns over 5x5x5 mm3 with high throughput and narrow energy bandpass, the geometry of the optic and its multilayer (ML) required careful design and optimization. While the geometry mainly influences resolution and field of view, the mirror coating determines spectral response and throughput. Here we outline the details of the design process for the first Z Wolter including the optimization of its WSi ML and present results of raytrace simulations completed to predict and verify the performance of the optic. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS,LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International,Inc., for the U.S. DOE's NNSA under contract DE-NA-0003525.
X-ray imaging using shaped crystals in Bragg reflection is a powerful technique used in high-energy-density physics experiments. The characterization of these crystal assemblies with conventional x-ray sources is very difficult because of the required angular resolution of the order of ~10 murad and the narrow bandwidth of the crystal. The 10-J, 1-ps Multi-Terawatt (MTW) laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics was used to characterize a set of Bragg crystal assemblies. The small spot size of the order of 10 mum and the high power (>10^18 W/cm^2) of this laser make it possible to measure the spatial resolution at the intended photon energy. A set of six crystals from two different vendors was checked on MTW, showing an unexpectedly large variation in spatial resolution of up to a factor of 4. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
A custom motor controlled probe system has been designed to make spatially resolved measurements of temperature, density, flow, and plasma potential in the C-2W inner divertors. Measurements in the inner divertors, which have a radius of 1.7 m and are located on either end of the confinement vessel, are critical in order to gauge exactly how local settings affect the plasma conditions, confinement, and stability in the FRC core. The inner Divertor Insertable Probe Platform (iDIPP) system consists of a custom motor controlled linear rack and pinion transporter that has a 1.9 m travel length in order to reach the center of the divertor. Mounted to the end of the transporter is a 1 m long segmented probe shaft made of individually floating stainless steel rings to prevent shorting out the electrode plates, which are biased up to 5 kV/m. A variety of interchangeable probe tips, including a triple Langmuir probe, a baffled probe, and a Gundestrup probe, can be easily plugged into the end of the probe shaft. Custom UHV coiled cabling comprised of 9 shielded conductors expands/retracts with the motion of the transporter in/out of the divertor. Details of the design of the iDIPP system and initial measurements of plasma parameters in the C-2W inner divertor will be discussed.
Optimizing neutron imaging lines of sight locations for maximum sampling of the cold fuel density in Inertial Confinement Fusion implosions at the National Ignition Facility S. H. Batha, P. L Volegov, V. E. Fatherley, V. Geppert-Kleinmath, and C. A. Wilde Los Alamos National Laboratory Neutron imaging provides a ready measurement of the shape of the “hot spot” core of an inertial confinement fusion implosion. The 14-MeV neutrons emitted by deuterium-tritium reactions are imaged at the National Ignition Facility using a pinhole array onto a scintillator and the images are recorded on a camera. By changing the gate time of the camera lower energy neutrons, down scattered by the cold fuel surrounding the hot spot, are recorded. The cold fuel density can be reconstructed using the two images. The kinematics of the scattering, coupled with the scattering cross sections restrict the angular extent of the cold fuel sampled, with the backside of the implosion not being sampled at all. This work demonstrates the limited region of the cold fuel measured by the current line of sight and the new lines of sight being built. The locations of future lines of sight to provide full 4π coverage are also given.
The vertical position for elongated, long-pulse tokamak plasmas has to be precisely controlled to optimize performance and prevent disruptions. For a steady-state tokamak reactor, integration of voltage signals arising from flux change is extremely challenging due to zero-offset drift as the measurement is intrinsically inductive. The vertical position of the plasma core current density is defined as the position where radial magnetic field is zero, making this parameter critical to investigating vertical instability. A Faraday-effect POlarimeter-INTerferometer system has been developed for measuring the internal radial magnetic field in EAST. Horizontally-viewing chords at/near the midplane allow us to determine plasma vertical position non-inductively with sub-centimeter spatial resolution and 1 s time response. The polarimeter-based position measurement, which does not require equilibrium reconstruction, is benchmarked against conventional flux loop measurements for EAST discharges. Non-inductive vertical position measurements are very promising for future steady-state plasmas and fast time response allows for direct feedback on plasma vertical displacement instabilities. Work supported by US DOE through grants DE-FG02-01ER54615 and DC-SC0010469.
The Icarus sensor is the newest version of the hybrid-CMOS high-speed x-ray framing camera that has been under development at Sandia for over a decade. Icarus can store 4 images per pixel, has improved soft x-ray detection sensitivity, and an option to independently trigger each half of the sensor to effectively operate as two closely-spaced framing cameras with 1024x256 pixels each. Icarus maintains the 25µm pixel pitch, nearly 100% detector fill factor, and sub-2ns minimum integration time of our previous sensors: Griffin, Furi, and Hippogriff. We use a combination of pulsed visible and x-ray sources to measure the sensor performance. Results will be presented of gate time profiles for a variety of timing configurations, frame-to-frame cross talk, trigger jitter and insertion delay, spatial resolution, pixel response uniformity, dynamic range, and absolute x-ray sensitivity. We will also describe recent measurements of sensor performance when illuminated with multiple closely-spaced light pulses and with continuous illumination spanning multiple frames to determine effective on/off rejection ratios. Sandia is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell Int., Inc., for the U.S. DOE’s NNSA under contract DE-NA0003525.
Shenguang-III (SG-III) laser facility, developed by laser fusion research center (LFRC), is designed to provide the experimental capabilities to study the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) physics in China. The disintegrate experiments of inertial confinement fusion physics could be carried out at SG-III laser facility. Over 80 diagnostics have been installed at SG-III laser facility, including the optical diagnostics, the x-ray imaging diagnostics, the x-ray spectrum diagnostics, the fusion product diagnostics, the general diagnostics assistant systems, and the central control and data acquisition systems. In this presentation, we will introduce some new diagnostic techniques. These new diagnostic concepts and techniques which had been developed, included the full aperture backscattering system (FABS), near backscattering system (NBS), three dimensional velocity interferometer system for any reflector (3D-VISAR), optical Thomson scattering system (OTS), X-ray transition bandpass system (XTDS), eight channel Kirkpatrick-Baez mirror, spherical bent crystal system (SBS), spatial resolution flux diagnostic system (SRFD). The diagnostics platforms play important roles in the ICF experiments at SG-III laser facility.
All the information about a plasma species is encoded in its distribution function (DF). While it would be helpful to measure the DF directly it is only possible to measure its moments. If the form of DF is not known a priori it can be difficult to interpret diagnostic signals. This is particularly true in fast-ion physics where, due to the complicated nature of the fast-ion DF, velocity-space weight functions were developed to interpret experimental data. Weight functions also allow for the inference of an approximate, spatially localized fast-ion DF i.e. Velocity-space Tomography. However, the technique is restricted, both by its accuracy and the availability of spatially overlapping diagnostics. In this work we overcome these limitations by extending velocity-space weight functions to a 3D orbit-space without loss of generality. We show how orbit weight functions can be used to infer the entire fast-ion DF from experimental data, i.e. Orbit Tomography. Using Fast-ion D-α (FIDA) data taken during a sawtooth crash at ASDEX-Upgrade, we show how Orbit Tomography can be used to do a first of its kind direct comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements.This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under DE-AC02-09CH11466 and DE-FC02-04ER54698
Main-ion charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (MICER) [1] uses the neutral beam induced D-alpha spectrum to measure local deuterium (D) temperature, rotation and density, plus neutral-beam parameters. An edge MICER system consisting of 16 densely packed chords was recently installed on DIII-D extending the MICER technique from the core to the pedestal and steep gradient region of H-mode plasmas where the D and commonly measured impurity properties can differ significantly. A combination of iterative collisional radiative modeling techniques and greatly accelerated spectral fitting algorithms allowed the extension of this diagnostic technique to the plasma edge where the steep gradients introduce significant diagnostic challenges. The system was operational for the 2017 DIII-D campaign and acquired data for a wide range of plasma conditions uncovering large temperature differences between D+ and impurities near the separatrix, inwardly shifted C6+ density pedestals, and strong co-Ip D edge rotation.The measurements and analysis demonstrate the state of the art in active spectroscopy and integrated modeling for diagnosing fusion plasmas and the importance of direct D measurements. [1]B. Grierson, RSI, 2012 Work supported by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698 and DE-AC02-09CH11466
The measurement of the magnetic field in tokamaks such as ITER and DEMO will be challenging due to the long pulse duration, high neutron flux and elevated temperatures. The long duration of the pulse makes standard techniques, such as inductive coils, prone to large error. At the same time, the hostile environment, with repairs possible only on blanket exchange, if at all, requires a robust magnetic sensor. This contribution presents the final design of novel, steady-state, magnetic sensors for ITER. A poloidal array of 60 sensors mounted on the vacuum vessel outer shell contributes to the measurement of the plasma current, plasma-wall clearance, and local perturbations of the magnetic field. Each sensor hosts a pair of bismuth Hall probes, themselves an outcome of extensive R&D, including neutron irradiations (to 1023 n/m2), temperature cycling tests (73 – 473 K) and tests at high magnetic field (to 12 T). A significant effort has been devoted to optimize the sensor housing by design and prototyping. The production version features an indium-filled cell for in-situ recalibration of the onboard thermocouple, vital for the interpretation of the Hall sensor measurement. The contribution will review the potential use of similar Hall sensors in DEMO and the associated R&D program.
Doppler backward scattering (DBS) reflectometer has proven to be a powerful technique to study the physics of L-H transition, plasma transport, GAM, and zonal flows though measurements of the perpendicular velocity of density fluctuations, and the radial electric field in plasmas. In this work, a Q-band 8-channel DBS reflectometer system based upon a low insertion loss multiplexer-based feedback loop microwave source, and quadrature demodulation have been designed, tested in the laboratory, installed and operated on the HL-2A tokamak. The SSB phase noise of the multiplexer -based feedback loop microwave source has a better SSB phase noise especially at high offset frequency (f > 100 kHz), compared with that of a typical commercial synthesizer. The 8 working frequency components of the new DBS reflectometer systems are 34 - 48 GHz with a frequency interval of 2 GHz, and the power variation of all frequency components is < 4 dB. They are developed to measure the localized intermediate wavenumber (k⊥ρ ~ 1–2, k⊥ ~ 2–10 cm−1) density fluctuations and the poloidal rotation velocity profile of turbulence. Details of the system design, laboratory tests, ray tracing estimation, and initial plasma results illustrate the capabilities of the multiplexer-based DBS reflectometers.
The fate of impurities launched into the plasma through plasma-wall interaction processes is determined by several basic characteristics of the plasma edge as well as by the nature of the underlying erosion mechanism, such as sputtering or evaporation. Upon a first ionization by electron collisions at the edge, the impurity starts to feel a variety of forces which ultimately determines its transport either to the core (pollution) or back to the wall (screening). Furthermore, the lifetime of plasma-facing materials is critically determined by local redeposition processed taking place near the LFS. In this work, liquid metal samples (Li, LiSn, and Sn) were exposed to TJ-II plasmas in a porous structure (CPS). The analysis of the spectroscopic signatures of Li and Sn, as well as that of their first ions in the visible range, was performed with spatial resolution in radial and toroidal directions by using a set of 16-channel PMs looking at the localized impurity source. From the analysis, the kinetic energy of the ejected neutral species, as well as the thermalization and transport of the resulting ions, is inferred. By using a high recycling impurity as He, injected as an atomic beam, values of the ion temperature profile at the edge are also deduced.
A novel soft X-ray diagnosis has been designed for the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) high neutron and/or gamma background discharges, which is based on a triple Gas Electron Multiplier with 2D imaging. With the working gas of mixed Ar (70%) and CO2 (30%), the GEM is sensitive to the X-ray photon energy below 30keV. This system is installed in the horizontal window A with a tangential angle of nearly 12 degree to the toroidal field on EAST aiming to directly identify core instabilities and heavy impurity transports etc. The spatial resolution is controlled by stepping motor which moves the GEM in front of a collimating pinhole to realize the zooming in/out function of the camera. Due to the limitation of movable distance, the maximum spatial resolution is 3 cm. A 100 um thickness of beryllium foil is used to cut off the low energy photon (<3keV) which guarantees a rational X-ray flux for high performance plasmas. The GEM has been tested in ENEA (Frascati) Laboratory by several X-ray sources which shows the ability to remove the white noise by setting environmentally determined threshold voltages. For the incoming campaign, this camera is applied to image the soft X-ray radiations for EAST high-performance shots with strong neutral beam injection heating.
A newly developed neutron time-of-flight diagnostic with an ultrafast instrument response function has been fielded on the OMEGA laser in a highly collimated line of sight. By using a small plastic scintillator volume, the detector provides a narrow instrument response of ~2 ns FWHM while maintaining a large signal-to-noise ratio for neutron yields between 1010 to 1014. The OMEGA Hardware Timing System is used along with an optical fiducial to provide an absolute neutron time-of-flight measurement. The fast instrument response enables the accurate measurement of primary DT neutron peak shape while the optical fiducial allows for an absolute neutron energy measurement. Evidence of bulk-fluid motion in cryogenic targets is presented with measurements of the neutron energy spectrum. An extension of this method to four lines of sight is discussed, which would enable the measurement of the hot-spot center-of-mass velocity. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
A double-pass, radially-view, 11 chord, POlarimeter-INTerferometer (POINT) system has been developed and routinely operated on the EAST tokamak, and provides important plasma current profile information for plasma control and physics understanding. Stray light originating from spurious reflections along the optical path and also direct feedback from the retro-reflector used to realize the double-pass configuration can both contribute to contamination of Faraday rotation measurement accuracy. Modulation of Faraday rotation signal due to interference from multiple reflections is observable when the interferometer phase (plasma density) varies with time. Direct reflection from the detector itself can be suppressed by employing an optical isolator consisting of λ/4-waveplate, and polarizer positioned in front of the mixer. A Faraday-effect phase oscillation observed during the density ramp can be reduced from 5o ~10o to 1o~2o by eliminating reflections from detector. Based on internal Faraday rotation measurement using this improved POINT system, the equilibrium reconstruction with a more accurate core current profile constraint has been demonstrated successfully for long-pulse operation high-performance scenario research on EAST.
Numerical simulations are critical in improving the capabilities of microwave diagnostics. In this work, the 2D finite-difference time-domain full-wave code REFMUL [1] has been applied on broadband turbulent plasmas using the conventional reflectometry set-up.Simulations were performed with O-mode waves, fixed frequency probing and I/Q detection. Determining O-mode propagation, the plasma density ne was modeled as the sum of a mean component of constant radial gradient and a fluctuating component following the Kolgomorov-like amplitude k-spectrum. Constant plasma velocity, in either radial or poloidal direction, and two different ne gradients were considered. In each case, the turbulence level δne /ne was scanned over several orders of magnitude.Simulations show trends, such as spectral broadening of the complex A(t)eiφ(t) signals with increasing δne/ne, that are discussed taking into account geometrical and scattering efficiency competing effects. Variations in A(t) and φ(t) proportional to δne/ne are also shown, for low δne/ne as previously observed with other 1D and 2D codes. The onset of non-linear effects and association with phase jumps and runaway as well as Doppler effects, is also observed and discussed. [1] F. da Silva et al, J. Comput. Phys., 203 (2005), 467-492
Turbulence measurements in tokamaks have for the most part concentrated on the low field side (LFS) of the magnetic axis due to accessibility of measurements and conventional belief that high field side (HFS) turbulence is negligible compared to the LFS. This has led to HFS turbulence not been considered for turbulence model validation studies although it can be a stringent constraint. To address this issue, we have modified the UCLA eight-channel Correlation Electron Cyclotron Emission (CECE) system at DIII-D to locally probe both the LFS and HFS. CECE uses a cross-correlation technique to remove intrinsic thermal noise and reveal electron temperature turbulence. Typically, 2nd harmonic X-mode electron cyclotron resonance has been utilized on DIII-D when probing the LFS. In order to study turbulence on the HFS, fundamental O-mode emission is employed. The optical system was modified to minimize differences in spot sizes on LFS and HFS (e.g., wavenumber range). Laboratory tests have shown that the optical systems for HFS and LFS are comparable. Details on hardware modifications together with investigation of potential measurement issues will be described. Preliminary plasma data will also be presented. Supported by the U.S. DOE under DE-FG02-08ER54984 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
The q-profile control is essential for tokamaks exploring the advanced tokamak scenarios, which expected to be able to provide a possible route towards a steady-state high performance operation in a fully non-inductive current drive state. This is because the pressure and current profiles must remain optimal for the scenario during the injection of large amounts of heating and current drive. Here, essential tools for the q-profile control are the motional Stark effect (MSE) diagnostic for measuring the radial magnetic pitch angle profile and a state-of-the-art plasma control system. The pulse duration of the H-mode discharge at KSTAR has been extended year by year with improved control performance, and the experiment of ITB formation in a weakly reversed q-profile with a marginal NBI majority heating successfully demonstrated. These recent achievements are attributed to reliable profile measurement, which means that profile feedback control has become a necessary step to ensure a robust and reliable approach to advanced scenarios as the next step of research in KSTAR. In this work, we present the technical and conceptual requirements for the q-profile control according to the upgrade plan of heating and current drive systems in the coming years.
The TOFED (double-ring Time-Of-Flight Enhanced Diagnostics) neutron spectrometer has been installed outside the EAST tokamak hall. The TOFED line of sight (LOS) is defined by the collimator through the wall of EAST hall, which can reduce scattered neutrons and background gamma-rays for the neutron spectral measurements. The Monte Carlo code MCNP5 is used in the simulations to characterize the collimation effect. The MCNP5 simulations show that background radiations at detectors have been reduced significantly which satisfies the requirement for TOFED operations at EAST. The angular distribution of the incident neutrons and the proportion of the scattered neutrons in the LOS of the TOFED are obtained for the measured spectral data interpretation.
The ITER TIP system design utilizes active feedback alignment to maintain laser position along the 120m long beam path from an optical table to the tokamak and back. This is accomplished using a series of high-speed piezoelectric tip-tilt mirror mounts, beam position sensing detectors (PSDs), and a custom feedback controller. The controller features a high-density Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and utilizes digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to implement a variety of control algorithms including a high-speed proportional-integral-derivative (PID) loop. The versatility of the design allows the continued development of more refined and advanced control algorithms such as machine-learning and fuzzy-logic. A working system has been constructed using ITER-approved FPGA hardware components and installed on the DIII-D prototype TIP system. Results indicate that active alignment is important for meeting ITER requirements because of the large motions of the machine during operations and the need to stabilize the signals on the detectors during discharges. In addition, the design also provides a fail-safe feature for automatic re-alignment in case of temporary beam loss. *Work supported by U.S. DOE Contracts DE-AC-02-09CH11466 and DE-FC02-04ER54698
The first neutron imaging system has proven to be a valuable tool for understanding the hot spot and cold fuel regions of imploding capsules. Changing the timing of the recording system allowed us to prove that we can use a similar setup to collect gamma images of the capsules. The design of the third line of sight pinhole incorporates the needs of both of these image types. This poster/paper will describe the design criteria and solution for this complex aperture array. LA-UR-18-20205
A novel detection approach for energetic particle loss has been developed and implemented on DIII-D. Incident energetic ion flux has been observed to produce a measurable temperature change on the DIII-D outer wall during neutral beam injection. A challenge with detecting energetic particle losses is to distinguish their heat signature from SOL heat flux profiles. The new detection technique relies on modified tile geometries composed of short barricades to prevent small gyroradius particles from impacting the downstream wall surface. The regions deprived of energetic particle impacts should exhibit specific heat patterns that can be identified using IR imaging. The geometry of the tiles set the energetic particle energy and pitch angle sensitivity, both of which can be modeled to inform the tile design. Four rippled tiles are in use on DIII-D, with two near the midplane and two approximately 45o below the midplane. Simulations of prompt loss from counter-current neutral beam injection indicates unique heat patterns for each tile. Heating patterns are measured using a wide-angle, high-speed IR camera and the resulting images indicate that ripple tile shapes affect downstream ion impacts. This passive detection technique is potentially applicable to ITER-class fusion devices.
We are developing a long-duration K-alpha x-ray source at the OMEGA laser facility. Such sources are important for x-ray scattering measurements at small scattering angles, where high spectral resolution is required. To date, He-alpha x-ray sources are the most common probes in scattering experiments, using ns-class lasers to heat foils to keV temperatures resulting in K-shell emission from He-like charge states. The high temperature of the emitting plasma introduces significant thermal broadening, reducing the resolution of scattering measurements. Here, we combine the long duration of He-alpha sources with the narrow spectral bandwidth of cold K-alpha emission. Using a foil-stack target, we produced a Zn K-alpha source using a 1 ns laser pulse from the OMEGA laser. A Ge foil was irradiated by the OMEGA laser, producing Ge He-alpha emission, which pumped Zn K-alpha emission from a nearby Zn layer. Using this technique, we present a long duration K-alpha source suitable for scattering measurements. This work was supported by the US DOE under grant No. DE-NA0001859, under the auspices of the US DOE by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344, and supported by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Grant No. 18-ERD-033.
A new fringe jump compensation technique has been developed for a zero-crossing phase measurement that provides the phase detection within a single fringe. The algorithm is extremely useful in the case of the time-averaging zero-crossing technique on noisy environments. When the noise level over the measurements is not sufficiently suppressed, a backward slope appears near the fringe jump on the measured phase signal and this slope brings an ambiguity over the compensation process. The algorithm requires a simple circuit that provides additional channel to measure a half fringe shifted phase along with the original channel. At least one of these two channels will be placed at the outside of the backward slope on the fringe jump. Comparing the phases from two channels, the algorithm decides a more reliable channel. This system applied to the millimeter-wave interferometer on Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, and successfully removed the ambiguity in the cases with severely deteriorated signals. The algorithm can provide a robust and cost-effective solution for the phase measurement system in many fields.
Disruptions have the potential to cause severe damage to large tokamaks like ITER. The mitigation of disruption damage is one of the essential issues for tokamak plasmas. Massive gas injection (MGI) is a technique in which large amounts of noble gas is injected into the plasma in order to safely radiate the plasma energy evenly over the entire plasma-facing first wall. However, the radiated energy during the disruption triggered by massive gas injection is found to be toroidal asymmetric. In order to investigate the spatial and temporal structure of the radiation asymmetric, the radiated power diagnostics for the J-TEXT tokamak have been upgraded. A multi-channel array of ultraviolet photodiodes (AXUV) has been upgraded at four different toroidal positions to investigate the radiation asymmetries during massive gas injection. It is found that the toroidal asymmetry is associated with gas properties and MGI induced MHD activities
UCLA is continuing to develop a new generation diagnostic that utilizes cross-polarization scattering(1) (CPS) to measure the fluctuating internal magnetic fields in tokamaks. The CPS technique relies on magnetic turbulence to scatter EM radiation into the perpendicular polarization, enabling a local measurement of the magnetic fluctuations. This is a challenging measurement that addresses the contribution of magnetic turbulence to anomalous thermal transport in fusion relevant plasmas. The goal of the new quasi-optical design is to achieve the full spatial and wavenumber capabilities of the CPS diagnostic. The approach consists of independently controlled aiming systems for the probe and scattered EM beams (55-75 GHz). This is accomplished by internal focusing lenses and remotely controlled mirrors. This new quasi-optical front end was designed with the assistance of 3D plasma ray tracing and Gaussian beam propagation codes. The design of the lenses, mirrors, remote control components, vacuum interface, and testing will be presented. #Supported by US DOE under DE-FG02-08ER54984 and DE-FC02-04ER54698. (1)T. Lehner, et al., Europhys. Lett., 8 759 (1989), Linda Vahala, et al., Phys. Fluids B 4, 619 (1992), X.L. Zou, et al., Phys. Rev. Lettrs, 75, 1090 (1995)
Laboratory evaluation of an integrated 40-m transmission line (TL) that approximates the LFSR system for ITER is underway. The TL includes corrugated waveguide, miter bends, calibration mirror, waveguide switch, stray-radiation protection system, Gaussian telescope (GT), vacuum windows, and containment membranes. FMCW signals are generated by V- and D-band transceiver modules. Transmission signals are multiplexed for combined propagation through the TL. Test metrics include antenna pattern scans to determine mode content, power loss measurements, and homodyne detection of FMCW signals. A method for reference phase calibration with a modified TL-integrated miter mirror is investigated. The calibration feature is extractable from the intermediate frequency (IF) spectrum with sufficient S/N without affecting the main signal. Microwave performance with the prototype GT is relatively insensitive to GT position. A S/N estimate of the measurement on ITER is predicted by incorporating laboratory test results with calculations of expected noise levels and signal losses caused by the plasma. Current projections suggest that, with some further optimization of the transceivers, the LFSR will meet the 5-mm resolution requirement for ITER. *Work supported by PPPL under subcontract S013252-A.
Neutron emission spectroscopy is a diagnostic technique that allows for energy measurements of neutrons born from nuclear reactions. The JET (Culham, UK) has a special place role in this respect as advanced spectrometers for 2.5 MeV and 14 MeV neutrons have been here developed for the first time for measurements of the neutron emission spectrum from D and DT plasmas with unprecedented accuracy. Twin liquid scintillating neutron spectrometers were built and calibrated at PTB (Braunschweig, Germany) and installed on JET in the recent years with tangential-equatorial (KM12) and vertical-radial (KM13) view lines, with the latter only recently operational. This article reports on the performance of KM12 and on the development of the data analysis methods in order to extract physics information upon D ions kinematics in JET auxiliary heated D plasmas from 2.5 MeV neutron measurements. The comparison of these results with the correspondents from other JET neutron spectrometers is also presented: Their agreement allows for JET unique capability of multi-lines of sight neutron spectroscopy and for benchmarking other 14 MeV neutron spectrometers installed on the same lines of sight in preparation for the DT experimental campaign at JET.
Plasma facing component (PFC) conditioning dramatically affects plasma performance in magnetic confinement fusion experiments. Lithium (Li) has been used in multiple machines to condition PFC with subsequent improvements to plasma performance. Multiple studies have investigated the interactions of Li with deuterium (D) and oxygen (O) in order to ascertain the mechanisms behind improvements in performance. Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) is a useful tool to interrogate PFC surfaces as they interact with plasmas. DIONISOS is a linear plasma device, capable of generating discharges with fluxes~10^21m^-2s^-1 and Te~6 eV, coupled to an ion accelerator. DIONISOS is capable of analyzing samples using Elastic Recoils Detection (ERD) and Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS) during plasma exposures. The facility has been equipped with a Li deposition system for evaporation of thin coatings on different substrates. The evaporator enables real time ERD and RBS measurements of deposition and erosion of Li coatings on different substrates and the interaction of the Li with the vacuum and plasma. Considerations for ERD and RBS, e.g. ion species, energy, and data acquisition frequency, are presented. This work is the basis for further investigation of He, H and D retention in solid and liquid Li
InfraRed imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) was improved for the application to the measurement under neutron environment of the deuterium experiment in the Large Helical Device (LHD). Plasma radiation measurement is crucial to understand the power balance and plasma detachment. Multi-dimensional measurement is required since the radiation occurs outside the last closed flux surface. IRVB is useful for the measurement and consists of a pinhole camera part with a Pt foil detector and an IR camera part. Deuterium plasma experiment was started from 2017 in LHD. (1) A shielding for the IR camera and (2) high-reproducibility and high-uniformity carbon coating on the Pt detector with the size of 130 mm x 100 mm x 2.5 micron for in-situ calibration of the thermal characteristics were required for the application of the IRVB under the neutron environment. Then, the neutron shielding was designed using MCNP6 code with the three-dimensional modeling of LHD. Evaporation technique was introduced to the carbon coating and the improved coating with 160-micron thickness could be obtained. Owing to these improvements, the IRVB was successfully operated in the neutron emission rate up to 3.3 × 10^15 n s^-1, which is the maximum rate in the first experimental campaign.
X-ray imaging at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is performed by means of diagnostics that combine an imaging system (pinhole apertures or mirror-based x-ray microscopes) and a detector. A multitude of x-ray detectors are used on NIF, depending on the experimental requirements and constraints. All of these detectors have in common the fact that the x-rays are indirectly recorded: quanta are successively converted, amplified, or scattered; these three basic stages can take place in different orders and be repeated a different number of times. To predict how noise is transferred throughout these stages, we apply a cascaded linear model analysis to a Micro Channel Plate (MCP)-based framing camera. We establish a theoretical expression of the Noise Power Spectrum (NPS) at the detector’s output and assess its accuracy by comparing it to the NPS of Monte Carlo simulations of the detector’s response to a uniform illumination. We also demonstrate that fitting the NPS of experimental data against a parametric model based on this expression can yield valuable information on the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of framing cameras, for both DC-biased and pulsed MCP operation. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
To evaluate and monitor the edge electron density distribution, which decides the location and efficiency of X-B or O-X-B mode conversion, a Langmuir probe array with high spatial and temporal resolution is developed for Sino-UNIted Spherical Tokamak (SUNIST). The probe array consists of 37 single molybdenum probes, constituting 12 triple probes at a step of 4mm. In consideration of characteristic frequency of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) behaviors (<20kHz) and main turbulent perturbations (~50kHz) for SUNIST, the bandwidth of the probe array is set to 60kHz, capable of evaluating influences of these instabilities on mode conversion process. Experimental results have proven that the Langmuir probe array can give a clear boundary density distribution with high temporal resolution.
A two-color interferometer (TCI) has been developed for the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) machine. The TCI is demonstrated first with a single tangential chord that traverses the innermost of the five chord planned. The long and short wavelengths for vibration compensation are 10.6 μm and 632.8 nm, respectively. Each wavelength beam is provided by commercial CO2 and He-Ne lasers. Under the KSTAR tokamak floor, a main optical table was installed for two lasers, a beam merging / splitting optics and detectors. Electronic devices and signal processing circuits are placed next to the optical table to lower the intermediate frequency (IF) to 10 MHz and detect the phase. The original IF is 40 and 80 MHz for CO2 and He-Ne lasers, respectively. The down-converted signal is injected into a quadrature demodulator to obtain the final phase signal. The effective vibration level is so large, causing multi-fringe data process like any other conventional interferometer, such as far-infrared or microwave. Therefore, fringe calculation errors may still occur. However, since the pure response of the phase to the plasma density is small in principle, it has been confirmed that even the newly installed pellet injector does not cause any fringe error in the TCI.
Four-channel Ultra-fast Charge eXchange Recombination Spectroscopy (UF-CXRS) diagnostic has been designed and is under construction on EAST tokamak. The key components of coating fiber bundles, spectrometer, lenses, detectors and data acquisition system are presented. The transmission of the whole optical path is designed to be about 50%. The temporal resolution of this diagnostic is 1 microsecond and the spatial resolution is at the order of centimeter. The photon flux of every channel is simulated by consulting ADAS data base basing on electron temperature and density profiles measured by Thomson Scattering and carbon ion C6+ simulated by Strahl code. The simulation result is compared with the experimental profile diagnosed by the traditional Charge eXchange Recombination Spectroscopy. It is shown that UF-CXRS channel will has a strong photon flux around the radial position of ρ=0.75, which is determined by C6+ profile peak. A 128-channel UF-CXRS system will be constructed in the nearly future.
Optical probe has advantage of direct measurement although it may lead to plasma perturbation in contrast with conventional optical emission spectroscopy. An optical probe with outer diameter of 8 mm and viewing dump of knife-edge type is designed and installed in Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST) to measure local emissivity directly, which gives radial profiles of impurity emission intensities via shot-to-shot measurements at various radial positions. In the optical probe system, collimated light is transmitted via vacuum feed-through and collected to two types of spectroscopic system, i.e. spectrometer with electron multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD) and band-pass filter with photo multiplier tube (PMT); the spectrum at specific time and time evolution of intensity in fixed wavelength can be obtained, respectively. Time evolution of radial electron density profile near the edge can be calculated by collisional-radiative model using ratio between Hα and Hβ line after intensity calibration. Besides, impurity emission profiles (e.g. oxygen, carbon) in several charge states of concern to impurity transport study can be measured. Then, Zeff will be also attainable using OPEN-ADAS database.
A high-resolution spectroscopic diagnostic for the measurement of plasma rotation and ion temperature is designed, developed and implemented on ADITYA-U tokamak, which is built to have diverter configuration by Upgrading ADITYA tokamak [1]. The diagnostic is viewing the plasma along the toroidal direction through six lines of sights from midplane tangential port using optical fibers and collimating lenses and covering the plasma from center to the half radius of the plasma. The UV and visible emission lines are at 229.69, 227.09 and 529.01 nm from C2+, C4+, and C5+ have been selected for the measurement. A high-resolution 1m f/8.7 spectrometer equipped with 1800 g/mm is used along with a CCD for the measurement. Initial measurements to using the diagnostic have been carried out during the ADITYA-U operation. In this presentation, the details on the development of the diagnostics and initial result will be discussed [1] J Ghosh et al, proceeding FEC 2016
A set of gamma ray spectrometers have been designed for ITER under the Radial Gamma Ray Spectrometer (RGRS) project. Aim of this project is the design of a system integrated with the ITER Radial Neutron Camera able to measure the gamma rays emitted from the plasma with a good energy resolution (about 1.5% at 4.44 MeV) and at high rates (about 1 MHz). RGRS will be able to operate both in the D phase and in the full-power DT phase and will measure gamma rays from i) reactions between fast ions, such as a particles, and light impurities and ii) bremsstrahlung emission occurring when runaway electrons hit the tokamak edge or the bulk plasma. The RGRS detectors are arranged in 9 Lines of Sight (able to cover a radial region with r<a/3), each featuring a large LaBr3 scintillator crystal (3”x6”) coupled to a Photo Multiplier Tube. Due to high neutron flux and magnetic field several solutions have been adopted to guarantee a good Signal to Background ratio and counting capabilities. In this work the main RGRS features and performances will be illustrated. As it is designed, RGRS is capable to combine space and energy distribution measurements of a particle and runaway electrons, that will help, together with other diagnostics, the study of the fast ions physics in a burning plasma.
Effective charge is an important physics parameter in magnetic confinement fusion research for understanding the behaviour of plasma impurities. A Bayesian model of Bremsstrahlung emission and the participating W7-X diagnostics has been developed in the Minerva framework. Since the Bremsstrahlung emission depends on electron density and temperature, the model includes Thomson scattering, interferometer, and spectroscopy diagnostics related to all relevant physics parameters. Gaussian processes have been used for tomographic inversion of the effective charge, electron density and temperature profiles. Profile hyperparameters are optimised by Bayes Occam’s razor criteria for optimal smoothness. The posterior distribution is explored by Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling, giving full uncertainties of all relevant physics quantities.
Tomographic reconstructions of line integrated SX plasma measurements are an ill-conditioned problem, therefore, resorts to regularization. Regularization overcome ill-conditions and over-fitting issues by introduction of controlled penalty function (PF). L1 regularization PF considers absolute weights of parameters and shrinks less important weights to zero or very less. This results in a smooth but sparse image. L2 regularization PF involves squared weights of parameters and penalized large weights while retaining total number of parameters, which offers spars-less, very smooth image. L2 regularization exhibit invariant to rotation and scale, unique solution and efficient computation, whereas superior smoothness purges sharp transitions and trims edge futures visibility. Results from a comparative study of L1 & L2 Phillip-Tikhonov regularization based tomographic reconstructions of simulated Heliotron-J SX signals are presented. Line integrated SX data is estimated from flux surface information provided by VEMC code and contribution matrix for the viewing geometry is determined. Generalized cross validation method is employed for regularization parameter. Reconstruction is performed by minimization of least mean square error function under L1 & L2 penalty function.
In order to ensure proper operation of plasma diagnostics based on Thomson scattering (TS), precise adjustment and proper alignment of both the laser beam path and the collection optics of scattered light is of great importance to provide reliable and accurate measurements. Misalignment, permanent or intermittent, could result in incorrectly determined plasma (electron) density or even prevent the usability of this type of diagnostic at all. Therefore, suitable means of alignment monitoring should be integrated into each TS diagnostic system. One of the methods commonly used for alignment observation consists in an individual evaluation of signals obtained from a given fiber bundle split in halves. The ratio of corresponding intensities serves as a suitable tool. This work presents variations of the method based on this principle. Correlation of acquired intensity ratios with the performed measurements of vibrations of the TS collection optics structure on the COMPASS tokamak is discussed. Various techniques of optimization of alignment monitoring are shown. The optimal technique, which could be accommodated during construction of TS diagnostic systems on future fusion devices, is proposed.
To investigate the fast-ions loss behaviour in high-performance plasmas on EAST, a scintillator-based fast-ion-loss detector (FILD) has been developed. The FILD has two measurement system, i.e. fast camera and photomultiplier tube (PMT) array. The fast camera can measure the pitch angle from 60◦ to 120◦ and the gyroradius from 10 mm to 180 mm of escaping fast ions reaching the detector, and the PMT detector is an array of 25 channels (5×5) and the sampling rate for PMT signal is 2 MHz per channel. In this paper, we will present the study of fast-ion prompt loss measurements with four different neutral beam (NB) lines together with prompt loss fast-ion orbit calculations. The transit time of the prompt loss orbit caused by the left co-injected NB is calculated to validate the diagnostic by comparing the simulation with the onset of fast-ion loss relative to the filtered fast ion D-alpha (f-FIDA) and the prompt loss distribution. By providing the pitch angles and gyro-radius of incident fast ions, we use the ion orbit loss model to calculate the trajectories of the incident ions backwardly in time to their birth at the intersection of the reverse orbit, and an overlaid NB injection footprint.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory Advanced Imaging Team will soon deploy a novel neutron imaging system along a new line of sight at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The new detector system will complement an existing equatorial active scintillator-based system and a passive image plate-based system along the polar direction. The third line of sight will allow true three-dimensional reconstruction of both the hot and cold fuel in the inertial confinement fusion process. Extensive scintillator characterization measurements of over 20 scintillator samples at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and the Omega laser facility in Rochester, NY, have informed key design decisions for the new detector. We conclude the feasibility of a monolithic lens-coupled design over the existing fiber array system. The monolithic design shows higher spatial resolution, higher light output, and better noise characteristics. A prototype of the novel system was recently tested at Omega and first penumbral images have been obtained with a neutron aperture array. Future work will include the lens design for the system, aiming for deployment at NIF in 2019.
We show a method that combines Bayesian modelling and neural networks (NNs) to have a reliable and real time capable inversion scheme of X-ray imaging diagnostic data for the inference of ion and electron temperature profiles at Wendelstein 7-X. The feasibility of such an approach relies on the implementation of the diagnostic model within the Minerva Bayesian modelling framework: in this context a model is defined as the combination of the prior distributions over the free parameters, the physics relations describing the processes and the likelihood distribution on the observed quantities. Such implementation is used to create the neural network training set, sampling from properly chosen prior distributions. In this way the NN will learn a surrogate model of the model and its inverse. In order to provide a sensible NN inversion, the uncertainties of the NN model are calculated in a Bayesian fashion. The uncertainty of the NN prediction is calculated under the Laplace approximation of the posterior distribution of the learnt weights. The NN is then evaluated on real data and the prediction is compared to the standard Bayesian inference results. The analysis time with NN is reduced from a few hours to tens of microseconds allowing for real time application.
A Radial-Interferometer-Polarimeter (RIP) diagnostic has been developed to explore fast magnetic dynamics in high-performance DIII-D plasmas by measuring radial magnetic field perturbations using three chords positioned near the magnetic axis. Newly developed solid-state sources operated at 650 GHz are used and provide phase noise down to 0.01 degree/sqrt(kHz) and tunable bandwidth up to 10 MHz. Various systematic errors, which can contaminate the Faraday-effect polarimetric measurement, have been investigated in detail. The impact of the perpendicular magnetic field (Cotton-Mouton Effect) is evaluated and found negligible. Distortion of circular polarization due to non-ideal optical components is calibrated by using a rotating quarter wave-plate technique. Optical feedback, due to multiple reflections induced by the double-pass configuration, is reduced by increasing the damping of stray light. Error due to non-collinearity is minimized to less than 0.5 degree for electron density up to 1x1020m-3 by optimizing the alignment. Measurement of coherent and broadband high-frequency magnetic fluctuation for DIII-D H-mode plasmas is presented. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Numbers DE-FG03-01ER54615 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
Injection of high energy neutral beam particles will be used in the ITER experiment for plasma heating and current drive. In a ITER heating beam injector, 40 MW electrostatically accelerated negative beam will be neutralised and filtered along the beamline obtaining a nominal 16.5 MW neutral beam power to be injected in the tokamak plasma or intercepted during conditioning and commissioning. The beam will heat the active panels of the beamline components with up to 13 MW/m2 surface power density and 18 MW power. These extreme conditions require testing in a ITER full scale neutral beam test facility under construction in Padova where the temperature of the beamline components will be monitored by 600 embedded thermocouples for protection against critical conditions, for recognising beam conditioning, and for deriving beam parameters. Power density maps of the expected beam-component interactions are applied on a non-linear finite element model of the entire beamline to simulate maps of surface temperatures. Such thermal maps are analysed to derive the beam parameters during operation: divergence of 3-7 mrad, misalignment of 2 mrad, and non-uniformity of 10%. The sensitivity of the temperature measurements is discussed considering a 10% fraction of the nominal beam power.
We have been conducting compact toroid (CT) collision and merging experiments by using two magnetized coaxial plasma guns (MCPG) [1]. As is well known, an actual CT/plasmoid moves macroscopically in a confining magnetic field [2]. Therefore, three-dimensional measurements are important in understanding the behavior of the CTs. To observe the macroscopic process, we adopted a fast-framing camera developed by NAC Image Technology: ULTRA Cam HS-106E. The characteristics of this camera are as follows; a CCD color sensor, capable of capturing 120 images during one sequence with a frame rate of up to 1.25 MHz. Using this camera, we captured the global motion of a CT inside the magnetic field and the collision of two CTs at the mid-plane. Additionally, by using a color sensor, we captured the global change in plasma emission of visible light during the CT collision/merging process. As a result of these measurements, we determined the CT’s global motion and the changes in the CT’s shape and visible emission. The detailed system setup and experimental results will be presented and discussed. [1] I. Allfrey et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 62, BP11.00054 (2017). [2] T. Matsumoto et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11D406 (2016).
Monochromatic X-ray imaging at micron scale is a convenient tool for studying the dense plasma produced by laser facilities. We use a microscope made of a gold transmission Fresnel Phase Zone plate (FPZP) which has high spatial resolution capability (1-5 µm) and high efficiency so called Fresnel Ultra High Resolution Imager (FUHRI). We show the interest to combine a FPZP with a multilayer mirror (ML) which selects a narrow X-ray bandwidth. This device allows to choose the imaging wavelength by modifying the focal length and the angle of ML. Following the development of this diagnostic we have improved the system by using two side-by-side FPZPs, or bi-FPZP, in order to image two different photon energies range simultaneously. We present experimental imaging studies of plasma X-ray sources with FPZP’s at the following material edges with corresponding photon energies of: Ti Heα (~4.7 keV), Al Heβ (~1850 eV) and Al Lyβ (~2050 eV). \A second set of bi-FPZP, manufactured by the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)a, with smaller outermost zone width of 120 nm and a larger aperture, were designed to simultaneously observe Al Heβ and Lyβ lines. We compare the radiography measurement using such FZPs realized at EQUINOX laser facility (CEA). a)https://www.psi.ch/
Translatable in-vessel mirrors have enabled the DIII-D Thomson Scattering system to diagnose the divertor plasma in high triangularity plasma shapes. Previous divertor Thomson scattering measurements in DIII-D were restricted to spatial locations along a Nd:YAG laser beam that was directed through a vertical port. This only allowed measurements to be made in low triangularity shaped plasmas. The new mirrors re-route the laser underneath floor tiles to a position of smaller major radius as necessary for high triangularity plasmas. New in-vessel collection optics transmit scattered light from regions inaccessible to external lenses. Damage to mirrors and high stray light levels are challenges that were overcome to successfully make these measurements. Through the careful use of baffles and light shields, stray light leakage into polychromator detector channels was reduced to negligible levels, allowing temperature measurements below 1 eV. The system is described and initial results presented.
Local, non-perturbative measurements of current density and magnetic fluctuations in magnetically confined fusion plasmas will provide information to advance equilibrium, transport, and stability studies. We are developing a diagnostic ion beam detector and technique (based on conservation of canonical momentum) to determine localized poloidal flux, flux fluctuations, poloidal magnetic field, and toroidal current density in axisymmetric toroidal plasmas from measurements of ion velocity. A K+ beam has been injected into reversed field pinch plasmas and the detector used to successfully measure the intensity and incoming angle of K2+ ions created along its path. We have developed simulation tools, including effects of field asymmetries, to unfold the poloidal flux from measurement of the beam angle and establish accuracy of the technique. Temporal and angular variations of measured signals are consistent with simulations. Since the detector operates with a direct view of the plasma, we have developed features to reduce noise currents induced by plasma particles and photons. The detector and technique also target a goal of developing more compact and economical diagnostic tools that retain heavy ion beam probe attributes. This work is supported by US DoE Award DE-SC0006077.
We report use of the spatially resolved imaging Thomson scattering diagnostic (ITS) to measure plasma properties across a shock on the OMEGA laser. Although the use of x-ray Thomson scattering to measure shock properties has been demonstrated, similar use in the optical regime has not been widely reported. The shocks are generated in a low-density, laser-driven, collisional carbon plasma impinging on a magnetized wire obstacle. Probing 42 degrees to the shock normal with a $ 2\omega $ beam, the ITS diagnostic successfully measured plasma parameters in and across the shock front. From the scattered spectra we observe electron number density jumps consistent with those of strong shocks. We compare how the probe beam affects the measurement for two pulse durations and energies, and discuss the issues that arise when probing a shock. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, through the NNSA-DS and SC-OFES Joint Program in High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasmas, grant number DE-NA0002956, and the National Laser User Facility Program and William Marsh Rice University, grant number, R19071, and through the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester by the NNSA/OICF under Cooperative Agreement No. DE-NA0001944.
"We have developed an experimental platform at the National Ignition Facility to measure x-ray Thompson scattering (XRTS) spectra from indirectly-driven capsule implosions that create extreme density conditions near stagnation [1]. To account for shot-to-shot fluctuations in the implosion timing, we use x-ray self-emission at stagnation as a timing fiducial. Due to lower implosion velocity, low gas fill, and hot spot symmetry perturbations, the hot spot emission is 100 – 1000x weaker than that of standard ICF implosions. To address this challenge, we have developed and fielded a new pinhole-imaging snout that exploits time-resolved penumbral imaging [2,3]. Though use of 150 m diameter, penumbral-quality pinholes reduces the direct spatial resolution of the images, a 2D image can be reconstructed through analysis of the penumbra. Despite fluctuations of the x-ray flash intensity of up to 5x, the emission time history is strikingly similar from shot to shot, and slightly asymmetric with respect to peak x-ray emission. Emission times vary by up to 250 ps and can be determined with an accuracy of 50 ps. 1. D. Kraus et al, J. Phys.: Conf. Series 717, 012067 (2016). 2. B. Bachmann et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 11D614 (2014). 3. B. Bachmann et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11E201 (2016)."
The Multi-Spectral Imaging system is a new diagnostic that captures simultaneous spectrally filtered images from a common line of sight while maintaining a large étendue. Imaging several atomic line intensities simultaneously may enable numerous measurement techniques. For example, Helium line ratios can produce 2D maps of Te and ne, and Balmer line intensities can be utilized to produce 2D maps of ne and volume recombination. The system uses a polychromator layout where each image is sequentially filtered and focused on to an industrial camera. The polychromator has 96% transmission between spectral channels with minimal vignetting and aberrations. A four-wavelength system was installed on C-Mod and then moved to TCV. The images are absolutely calibrated and spatially registered enabling 2D mappings of atomic line ratios and absolute line intensities. The CIII, and Balmer lines have been used to study detachment in the TCV divertor. The spectral transmissions were calibrated using an incandescent lamp with a known emissivity spectrum. The images are registered by cross-referencing points on TCV with a CAD model, and the images are inverted using the simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique. This work was supported by USDoE awards DE-FC02-99ER54512 and DE-AC05-06OR23100
The third generation Gas Cherenkov Detector has helped characterize gamma reaction history, but the output signal has been restricted to ~100ps by the temporal resolution of existing photomultiplier tube (PMT) technology. Replacing the existing photomultiplier tube with a newly fielded pulse-dilation photomultiplier tube (PD-PMT) has made it possible for the detector to further characterize implosion bang time and burn width given a refined resolution of ~10ps. The mechanical design of the Phase II Gas Cherenkov Detector has integrated these modern photomultiplier tube capabilities with the original detector to reveal gamma reaction history features that have not been available in the past. This poster/paper will highlight the design challenges, methodologies, and solutions developed to implement this new technology onto the existing detector at NIF. LA-UR-18-20252
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectroscopy has been added to the DIII-D divertor to measure dominant resonance-line radiators for low-Z elements, allowing determination of emissions and radiated power from constituent plasma species. This added spectroscopy enables detailed comparison and validation with 2D fluid boundary codes at conditions throughout the transition to divertor detachment. The spectrometer is a SPRED (Survey, Poor Resolution, Extended Domain) McPherson Model 251 with gratings to observe the 110-1700Å region with up to 2Å optical resolution. The broader grating provides views of C II-IV emission lines (especially C IV, 1550Å) as well as the D Lyman-α line, 1215Å, which together radiate >80% of the total power in the divertor. Divertor SPRED (or DivSPRED) is mounted on top of DIII-D with a direct vertical line of sight into the machine coincident with other boundary diagnostics. This position on the machine introduces challenges including radiation and magnetic sensitivity for vacuum pumps and detectors. The system and a discussion of engineering issues overcome are presented. *This work was supported in part under the auspices of the US Department of Energy (US DOE) by LLNL under DE-AC52-07N27344 and by the US DOE under DE-AC05-00OR22725, and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
We present the status and progress of x-ray penumbral imaging of layered DT implosions on the NIF [1-3]. When imaging ICF hot spots with penumbral imaging, the increased aperture solid angle leads to up to a 100-fold increased photon flux in comparison to regular pinhole imaging. This increased flux and resulting improvement in SNR gives us experimental access to the hot spot self-emission spectrum that is beyond the ablator opacity threshold (~15 keV) and thus allows us to obtain unobstructed, high-resolution (5 micrometer) images of the hot spot. This is achieved by increased x-ray filtration which brings the emission weighted average x-ray energy from ~9 keV (pinhole imaging) to 17 - 30 keV. We will further describe the potential of x-ray penumbral imaging for enabling spatially resolved measurements of Te and mix in ICF DT implosions, which are key measurements for improving our understanding of the hot fuel assembly and evolution. References [1] B. Bachmann et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 11D614 (2014) [2] B. Bachmann et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11E201 (2016) [3] B. Bachmann et al., Proc. SPIE 10390, 103900B (2017) This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and was supported in part by GA under Contract DE-NA0001808.
Photomultiplier tubes, particularly those for high energy density physics, ideally operate over many orders of magnitude with linear response. We examine nonlinear response and mitigation strategies to extend the maximum linearity for metal mesh, plate, or glass MCP PMT. Superlinearity here means a positive nonlinear response and extension of linear operational limits by counteracting saturation mechanisms—charge depletion, space-charge field, and secondary emission surface effects. Our detector calibration methodology uses NIST-traceable calibrated standard laboratory equipment, and absolute input-referenced techniques to examine impulse or step responses separately as these are no longer related through linear integration. Quantitative analysis reveals nonlinearity strength independent of charge depletion. We further present a whole-detector radiation sensitivity calibration method using high-activity Co-60 sources, precise collimation, and NIST-calibrated flux measurement. Accurate characterization of nonlinear response and tailoring of the PMT circuitry can effectively produce higher linear current and charge limits. Recent results are also applicable to MCP PMT. This work was done by MSTS, LLC under Contract DE-NA0003624 with the U.S. Dept. of Energy. DOE/NV/03624—0027
Bound-free contributions to X-ray Thomson scattering, or nonresonant inelastic X-ray scattering from core or semi-core electrons, is a powerful technique to probe matter in extreme conditions. Here we present measurements of high signal-to-noise, spectrally resolved X-ray scattering from cryogenic solid Argon, enabling future studies of ionization, densities, temperatures, and conductivity dynamics from ps-laser driven samples approaching material temperatures of 1 eV. Our results show energy resolved measurements of incoherent X-ray scattering with unprecedented dynamic range using a 120 Hz coherent X-ray laser coupled with a novel Argon micro-jet platform. Measurements were performed using a energy-dispersive spectrometer equipped with a Highly Annealed Pyrolytic Graphite (HAPG) crystal in combination with a Cornell-SLAC Pixel Array Detector (CSPAD) that was configured in the von Hamos geometry.
The velocity distribution of the hotspot in an Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) implosion changes the spectra of fusion neutrons emitted from the experiment as a function of viewing angle. These velocity-induced spectral changes affect the response of nuclear activation detectors (NADs) positioned around the experiment, and must be accounted for to correctly extract information about areal density (ρR) asymmetry from the data. Three mechanisms through which average hotspot velocity affects NAD activation are addressed: change in activation cross-section due to Doppler shift of the mean neutron energy, kinematic increase in neutron fluence, and change in scattering cross-section due to Doppler shift. Using the hotspot velocity inferred from NTOF measurements of D-T and D-D fusion neutrons, the hotspot velocity is shown to account for 80% of the observed NAD activation asymmetry in a calibration shot with negligible fuel ρR. A robust method to evaluate uncertainties in spherical-harmonic fits to the NAD data due to the velocity correction and detector uncertainty is presented.
Contamination of plasma line emission by bright scattered background radiation poses a great challenge for spectroscopy-based diagnostics in metal wall machines such as ITER. It can be the case that the diffusely scattered background component will be largely unpolarised. This is because the light scattered from a roughened wall surface is the summation of light received from a range of incident angles and having varying degrees of polarisation, and polarisation states depending on the plasma emission properties and path integration effects. We propose and demonstrate the utility of polarisation sensitive spectral imaging for helping to separate the Zeeman-polarised local plasma emission (Stokes vector) from unwanted diffusely scattered background contamination. It has been shown recently that the Zeeman Stokes components can be related in a well-defined way to weighted line integrals of plasma flow and temperature in the case of Doppler effect spectroscopy. The weights depend on the local magnetic field structure. To explore these issues, we have installed an imaging polarimeter-interferometer for Doppler spectroscopy on the H-1 Heliac. We observe that background reflections dominate the unpolarized image but are largely absent in the polarised Stokes vector components.
During magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) experiments at Sandia National Laboratories, a kJ class laser is used to pre-heat the deuterium fuel before compression. Laser-plasma-instabilities (LPI) result from the interaction of the high intensity laser with dense target materials such as the Laser-Entrance-Hole window, fuel and bottom-cap of the liner. The observed LPI scattering modes are stimulated Raman (SRS) and stimulated Brillouin (SBS). For parametric gain >20, these stimulated processes become parasitic and can block nearly all the laser pre-heat energy. Fortunately, we observe smaller gains. The total backscattered light is <10%. One benefit of observing some backscatter is that the wavelength shift and intensity can be used to diagnose the laser target interaction dynamics. SRS reveals the evolution of the electron plasma density. SBS indicates temperature. We will show how target and laser properties affect the time resolved backscatter spectra with comparisons to Hydra calculations. Sandia is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s NNSA under contract DE-NA0003525.
A new actively cooled detector array and several recently implemented optimizations for the Ultra Fast Charge Exchange Recombination Spectroscopy (UF-CHERS) diagnostic on DIII-D have resulted in improved sensitivity to ion fluctuations. UF-CHERS measures carbon ion temperature (Ti) and toroidal velocity (v𝜙) fluctuations associated with long-wavelength turbulence and other plasma instabilities by observing the charge exchange (CX) reaction between injected Deuterium neutrals and intrinsic Carbon impurity with 1 μs time resolution and ~1 cm radial resolution. The upgrades resulted in a two-fold increase in signal levels and improved distinction between active CX and background emissions compared to a previous higher noise detector array, especially at the spectral line’s edge, which are critical for curve fitting with sparse wavelength bins (8 bins/channel). Ti and v𝜙 fluctuations up to ~230 kHz have been measured with the new array. The cross-phase of Carbon density and temperature (𝛥𝜙nC×Ti) associated with the Edge Harmonic Oscillations (EHO) in QH-mode, important to understanding increased energy confinement while allowing particle transport, were also measured. This work was supported by U.S. DOE grants DE-FG02-08ER54999, DE-FC02-04ER54698, and NSF GRFP grant DGE-1256259.
A LaBr3 scintillator-based neutron detection system has been tested at several neutron sources for evaluation as a DD neutron yield measurement. DD fusion neutrons (2.45 MeV) undergo (n,n’) reactions in Br-79m in the crystal, which then emits a 208 keV gamma ray that is detected. Because the gamma originates in the crystal, detection efficiency is high. In this work the detector was tested in three facilities: the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and two Dense Plasma Focuses (DPFs). By testing at different facilities, a linear response to yield confirmed the detector is suitable as a yield diagnostic for neutron fluences ranging from 1x10^3 to 1x10^5 n/cm^2. At NIF the response was cross-calibrated to NTOF yields. Later it was tested at a DPF, where it was compared to a He-3 detector. In the linear range of the He-3 detector the LaBr3 was proportional, although by a different constant due to the difference in neutron scattering between the DPF and NIF. A similar experiment was carried out at another DPF with higher yields. A block of Y, which has a higher activation energy threshold, was tested as a proof-of-concept at the high-yield DPF and had encouraging results.
In the quest for reaching ignition of deuterium-tritium (DT) fuel capsule implosions, experiments on the National Ignition Facility have shown lower final fuel areal densities than simulated. Possible explanations for reduced compression are higher preheat that can increase the ice-ablator density jump and induce ablator-DT ice mix, or reverberating shocks. We are hence developing x-ray Refraction Enhanced Radiography (RER) to infer the inflight density profiles in layered fuel capsule implosions. The RER uses a 5 µm imaging slit backlit by a Ni 7.8 keV He-alpha laser driven x-ray source at 20 mm from the capsule to cast refracted images of the inflight capsule onto a streak camera in a high magnification (M~60x) setup. Our first experiments have validated our setup using an un-driven high density carbon capsule that recorded a streaked RER x-ray fringe from the carbon ablator surface consistent with raytracing calculations at the required ~ 6 µm and 25 ps resolution for implosions. Streaked RER will be applied to inflight layered capsule implosions using a hydrogen-tritium fuel mix rather than DT to reduce neutron yields and associated x-ray backgrounds. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
The motional Stark effect (MSE) diagnostic is applied to measure the safety factor q and current density profile of a tokamak device, which are important parameters in realizing the high-performance and long-pulse steady state of a tokamak. A single-channel MSE diagnostic based on photoelastic modulators (PEMs), whose sightline meets with the neutral beam injection at a major radius of R = 2.12 m, has been built for the D window of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). According to the requirements of MSE diagnostic polarimetric calibration, a high-precision four-dimensional calibration turntable, driven by four stepping motors and controlled by upper computer software, was designed for EAST. The turntable allows us to rapidly calibrate the MSE diagnostic in a series of positions and angles during EAST maintenance. The turntable can move in four dimensions of translation, yaw, pitch and roll of the polarizer, and can create linearly polarized light at any given angle with accuracy of ~0.05° for the MSE system offline calibration. Experimental results of the MSE diagnostic calibration in the laboratory show that the turntable has the advantages of high positioning accuracy, flexible spatial movement and convenient control.
The C-2W Thomson Scattering diagnostic consists of two individual systems for monitoring electron temperature and density; one system in the central region is operational and the second system, currently under design, will monitor the open field line jet region [1]. The laser and collection optics for this diagnostic will be described separately [2]. A broadband source and a scanning monochromator have been setup for the spectral calibration of the polychromators. The system intensity calibration is performed using Rayleigh scattering with the vessel filled with argon gas at different pressures. This paper will detail the design principles and results of the spectral channel configurations, signal conditioning of the polychromators and their spectral calibrations, and the Rayleigh scattering calibration for the whole system response. [1] K. Zhai Thomson scattering systems on C-2W field-reversed configuration plasma experiment HTPD 2018 [2] A. Ottaviano Characterization of system components for Thomson scattering diagnostics on C-2W HTPD 2018
Anomalous transport is a key issue to affect the confinement properties of plasma. Turbulence measurement is important for the study of anomalous transport. An eight-channel correlation electron cyclotron emission (CECE) system has been developed based on the existing conventional electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer for the measurement of electron temperature fluctuation on the Joint-Texas Experimental (J-TEXT) tokamak. The signal received by the ECE radio frequency (RF) unit is split and fed to the CECE system. Then the signal is resolved by 8 narrow band-pass filters including six YIG filters and two fixed frequency filters. The electron temperature fluctuation at four separate radial positions can be measured by coherences analysis. With an focused lens unit, this system can measure temperature fluctuations which have k_θ≤2.5cm^(-1). Based on the CECE system, some interesting phenomena of electron temperature fluctuations have been observed on J-TEXT.
A high resolution, Diagnostic-Instrument-Manipulator-based x-ray Bragg crystal spectrometer has been calibrated for and deployed at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to diagnose plasma conditions and mix in ignition capsules near stagnation times. The spectrometer has two conical crystals in the Hall geometry focusing rays from the Kr He-α and He-β complexes onto a streak camera, with the physics objectives of measuring time-resolved electron density and temperature through observing Stark broadening and the relative intensities of dielectronic satellites. A third von Hámos crystal time-integrates the intervening energy range to provide in-situ calibration for the streak camera signals. The spectrometer has been absolutely calibrated using a microfocus x-ray source, an array of CCD and single-photon-counting detectors, and multiple K- and L-absorption edge filters. Measurements of the integrated reflectivity, energy range, and energy resolution for each crystal will be discussed. Spectra and images from a polar direct-drive exploding pusher target on NIF will be shown, with absolute intensity determined by pre-shot calibration. This work was performed under the auspices of the US DoE by PPPL under DE-AC02-09CH11466 and by LLNL under DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Estimating the volume of a highly distorted ICF core is critical to evaluating the performance of an ICF implosion: degree of alpha heating is inferred from hot spot pressure, which is in turn derived from hot spot volume, as observed from x-ray self-emission images. Accurate tomographic reconstruction to determine volume is precluded by the limited number of accessible lines of sight (typically two). Moreover, due to dynamically evolving temperature and density gradients, hot spot boundaries are difficult to define and thus to observe. Approximations using spherical or elliptical assumptions have been shown to over-predict the volume significantly. We describe a method to infer volumes of asymmetric shapes using orthogonal images and emission intensity with no assumption of symmetry or critical contour. An ensemble of simulated images was used to validate the method, and application of the technique to recent NIF implosions has revealed trends in time-dependent volume that provide insights into stagnation dynamics. This work also provides a tool for quantifying the amount of material that jets into the hot spot via engineering features -- a leading hypothesis for the underperformance of ICF implosions. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344, LLNL-ABS-744386.
X-ray imaging spectrometers are used on many fusion experiments for the measurement of basic plasma parameters, such as ion and electron temperatures Ti and Te, impurity densities nZ, plasma flow velocities v and recently also for the determination of the radial electric field Er .This paper shows initial measurements of the recently upgraded X-ray imaging spectrometer systems XICS and HR-XIS which are installed at the optimized stellarator Wendelstein 7-X. Both spectrometers are designed to detect impurity emission of highly ionized charge states for various impurities, such as Si, Ar, Ti, Fe, or Mo. In combination with a laser blow-off system, spatio-temporal impurity emissivities were measured by the spectrometers, giving access to the impurity confinement times and allowing for the determination of diffusive and convective transport parameters D and v. Specific settings of the power deposition reveal a significant impact on impurity confinement time, possibly driven by changes in the radial electric field. Experimental findings are compared to neoclassical theory and modeled with the 1D transport analysis code STRAHL.
A new generation fast-gated x-ray framing cameras has been developed that is capable of capturing multiple frames along a single line-of-sight with 25 ps temporal resolution and 40 μm spatial resolution. This was achieved by integrating an electron pulse-dilation imager [1] with Sandia’s nanosecond-gated burst mode CMOS sensors [2]. The combination of these two transformative technologies enables a new class of x-ray imagers that will have significant impact in HED diagnostic applications requiring high temporal and spatial resolution. The first of these instruments, SLOS-TRXI and SLOS-CBI, have been deployed at the Omega and NIF HED facilities and began on-line commissioning in the Fall of 2016. Here we present the system architecture, as well as system characterization and performance. We will discuss in detail the testing performed to tune the photocathode voltage waveform, which achieves a uniform temporal magnification profile, as well as the implications for the systems’ dynamic range and sensitivity. Finally, we will present design improvements for future instruments aimed at mitigating space-charge broadening to improve the dynamic range and compensating for the electron energy chirp to provide uniform temporal sensitivity.
A new calibration method for the DIII-D charge-exchange spectroscopy system produces smoother impurity density profiles compared to previous techniques, improving the accuracy of our impurity density profile reconstruction. Relative intensity calibration between the chords of the DIII-D charge-exchange recombination (CER) spectroscopy system is performed by firing neutral beams into the evacuated vacuum vessel pre-filled with neutral gas. Relative calibration is required to account for uncertainty in the 3D geometry of the neutral beam. Previous methods using helium gas have been improved by using xenon, which emits an emission line close to the commonly used carbon wavelength 5290.5A, as well as improved timing of the gas injection, inclusion of variation in the vessel pressure, and timing of neutral beam injection. Photoemission recorded by 108 sightlines viewing 6 neutral beams are compared and used to form a relative calibration factor for each sightline. This relative calibration is used to refine the absolute intensity calibration procedure that utilizes an integrating sphere. Results of the relative calibration are compared to an ideal diverging beam calculation that uses a Monte-Carlo 3D model and exposes discrepancies in the assumptions about the neutral beam divergence.
Disruptions have the potential to cause severe material wall damage to large tokamaks like ITER. The mitigation of disruption damage is essential for the safe operation of large scale tokamak. The shattered pellet injection(SPI) technique, which is regarded as the primary injection method in ITER, has been show several advantages relative to massive gas injection, including more rapid particle delivery, higher total particle assimilation and more centrally peaked particle deposition. A dedicated argon SPI system focus on disruption mitigation and runaway current dissipation experiment has been being designed for the J-TEXT tokamak. It will be put into disruption experiment in next year. The pellet will be cooled by a refrigerator to about 80K. The pellet can be shaped with 5 mm diameter and 4-10 mm length. Helium gas at room temperature will be used as a propellant gas for pellet acceleration. The pellet can be injected with speed of 150-300m/s. The time interval between injection cycles is about 8 minutes. The pellet will be shattered at edge of the plasma with the speed of 150-200m/s and then injected into the core of plasma. Related diagnostics for the disruption mitigation experiment by the SPI is presented.
Some progress has been made to develop multipoint Thomson scattering diagnostic on HL-2A tokamak. Hardware of Si-APD detector electronics is improved, which provides two output signal channels. In one channel, only the rapid TS signal is output after deducting the influence of background slow-varying plasma light. In the other, both the rapid TS signal and the plasma background signal are output. In last HL-2A experiment campaign, the newly developed electronics are tested and TS signals can be obtained from each of the two channels, where the signal is digitized by 12-bit transient recorder sampled at 1GS/s. Laser beam alignment is fulfilled by using motorized stages to control the laser beam pass through ~10 mm-wide narrow throats of the lower and upper closed divertors with small movements, then strayed laser light is reduced. New modules of fast digtizers with more than 100 channels are installed and will be used to record TS pulse signals. On the basis of these achivements, about 20-point measurements of plasma Te and ne by Thomson scattering diagnostic will come into operation in this HL-2A experiment campaign.
The electron temperature (Te) of the hot spot within the core of imploded ICF capsules is an effective indicator of implosion performance. Currently, we have spatially and temporally integrated Te inferences using image plates. A temporally resolved measurement of Te will help elucidate the mechanisms for hot spot heating and cooling such as conduction to fuel, alpha-heating, mix and radiative losses. To determine the temporally resolved Te of hot spots, specific filters are added to an existing x-ray streak camera “Streaked Polar Instrumentation for Diagnosing Energetic Radiation (SPIDER)” to probe the emission spectrum during the x-ray burn history of implosions. One of the difficulties in inferring the hot spot Te is the attenuation of the emission due to opacity from the shell and fuel. A series of increasingly thick titanium filters were therefore used to select an x-ray band which reduces the influence of the shell/fuel optical depth while maintaining sensitivity to temperature. The signal level of the emission through the thicker filters are relatively poor so a dual slit (aperture) was designed to increase detected signal at the higher end of the spectrum. Herein, the design of the filters and slit and expected accuracy are described, and initial Te results are reported.
Acid phthalates crystals such as KAP crystals are the method of choice to record x-ray spectra in the soft x-ray regime (E~1keV) using the large (001) 2d=26.63Å spacing. Burkhalter et al., J. Appl. Phys., 1981, showed that (013) reflection is about or more reflective as the 2nd order reflection (002) and can even overlap the main first order reflection when the crystal b-axis is contained in the dispersion plane, thus contaminating the main (001) measurement. In general, (01l) l≤10, reflections have comparable reflectivity as their respective (00l) counterparts and coincides with the (001) reflection at the limit of l large. We studied the (01l) reflection when the crystal b-axis is parallel and perpendicular to the dispersion plane for different spectral ranges. We discuss the effect of contamination of these reflections and potential applications for quantitative spectroscopy. ++ Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.
A new generation of millimeter-wave heterodyne imaging detector arrays has been developed with liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate modules and demonstrated on the DIII-D ECEI system. These arrays exhibit ~ 15 dB additional gain and > 30x reduction in noise temperature compared to the previous generation and provide ECEI capability for absolute electron temperature calibration. In each LCP horn-waveguide module, a 3x3 mm GaAs MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) chip, consisting of a low noise amplifier (LNA), balanced mixer, local oscillator multiplier chain and IF amplifier, was employed to generate LO with ~12 GHz input via an RF cable to the enclosure box. A proof-of-principle instrument with 5 poloidal channels was installed on DIII-D in 2017. The full system installation (20 poloidal channels) is scheduled for early in 2018. The LCP ECEI system is used for pedestal region measurements, especially focusing on temperature evolution during ELM bursting. The DIII-D ECEI signal has been significantly improved with extremely effective shielding of out-of-band microwave noise. In H-mode ELM bursting, the radial propagation of electron heat flow has been detected on DIII-D. The LCP ECEI is expected to be a valuable diagnostic tool for ELM physics investigations.
Laser interferometry, as one of the important plasma diagnostic systems on the magnetic fusion devices, suffers from vibration-induced noise. Advanced tokamak interferometers utilize technology that is intrinsically free from vibration-induced noise such as two-color interferometer or dispersion interferometer. However, data analysis of Two Color Interferometer (TCI) on KSTAR showed that the removal of vibration on the retro-reflectors will improve the quality of TCI diagnostics. A passive vibration isolator based on the mass-spring system is developed for the interferometers on KSTAR. The new vibration isolator can be used for the vertical beam coming out from bottom in the strong magnetic field. Comparison of line integrated density data from the Far Infrared Interferometer with vibration isolator and without vibration isolator indicated that 98% of vibrational noise is removed. In addition, the design of a compact passive vibration isolator for the in-vessel installation will be presented.
Tokamak plasmas emit as a volumetric Soft X-Ray (SXR) source and the emitted radiation contains very useful information about plasma stability, shape and impurity content. In the deuterium-tritium phase of ITER, the high neutron fluxes, gamma and hard X-ray emission will constitute too harsh an environment to permit the use of classical semiconductor detectors in a close vicinity of the machine. The first issue is thus to consider new SXR detector technologies more robust to such environments. The GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) and LVIC (Low Voltage Ionization Chamber) are foreseen as the two most promising solutions so far. The second issue is then to investigate the possibility of moving these detectors at a sufficient distance from the plasma to protect them from heat fluxes and radiation. We have thus investigated the possibility of using polycapillary lenses in ITER, to transport the SXR information several meters away from the plasma in the complex port-plug geometry. Different polycapillary lenses configurations have been tested thanks to a polycapillary transmission model and synthetic diagnostics (mimicking GEM and LVIC response) which have been recently developed. Results confirm the great potential of polycapillary lenses for SXR transmission in tokamak plasmas.
A synthetic charge exchange recombination spectroscopy diagnostic based on the FIDAsim modeling suite has been created for the DIII-D tokamak. This synthetic diagnostic assumes the ions have Maxwellian distribution functions on each flux surface and generates synthetic emission from charge exchange events between the beam neutrals and a fully ionized impurity. This work was motivated by the observation of non-Gaussian spectra that may be caused by spatial averaging, atomic physics, or non-Maxwellian distribution functions. Measurements of non-Gaussian spectra commonly observed in the H-mode pedestal and in plasmas with very steep core gradients are compared to the synthetic diagnostic. Spatial averaging alone cannot account for the observations, indicating other cause(s) such as non-Maxwellian distribution functions. The synthetic diagnostic has also been used to resolve a long-standing issue: it is shown that vertical view chords near the magnetic axis often measure lower temperatures than the tangential view chords because of a difference in spatial averaging due to the DIII-D neutral beams being twice as tall as they are wide. Work supported by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-AC02-09CH11466, and the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program.
In order to evaluate the effect of the MHD instabilities, estimate of the shape the eigenfunction of the MHD mode is necessary. It is not easy to estimate from the magnetic field data measured by the Mirnov coil arrays since the magnetic fluctuation signal is integrated from the perturbation currents inside the plasma. It is a kind of ill-posed inverse problem. However, in the case of the interchange mode where the eigenfunction is quite localized on the rational surface, perturbation current profile perpendicular to the magnetic field line may be estimated from the magnetic fluctuation data. From the numerical test assuming that the current density is localized on the rational surface, the inverse estimate of the current density profileis found to be possible if the suitable regularization method, such as L2-regularization, is used for solving the inverse problem. LHD is a Heliotron type device where net toroidal current is small. Pressure driven mode, such as the interchange mode is the dominant MHD instabilities. Quite deformed waveform, different from the sinewave, are often observed in experiments. Methods for solving the inverse problem and the estimate of the parallel current density profile of complicated MHD phenomena is presented.
A two-crystal spectrometer system has been implemented in the EAST tokamak to simultaneously measure high- and low-temperature plasma regions using He- and H-like Argon spectra. But for future devices like ITER and CFETR, the Ar ions become fully stripped and the intensity of the H-like lines weaken significantly at high temperatures (Te>5 keV). With increasing auxiliary heating power on EAST, the core plasma temperature could also reach 5 keV and higher. In such conditions, the use of a Xenon puff becomes an appropriate choice for both ion-temperature and flow-velocity measurements. A new two-crystal system using a He-like Ar crystal (2d=4.913 Å) and a Ne-like Xe crystal (2d=6.686 Å) has been deployed on a poloidal XCS spectrometer. While the He-like Argon spectra will be used to measure the plasma temperature in the edge plasma region, the Ne-like Xenon spectra will be used for measurement in the hot core. The new crystal arrangement allows a wide temperature measurement ranging from 0.5 to 10 keV or even higher, being the firsts tests for burning plasmas like ITER and CFETR. Preliminary result of lab-tests, Ne-like Xenon lines measurement and a new calibration procedure using a Ti x-ray tube will be presented.
The Thomson scattering (TS) system is a main diagnostic at the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator for electron temperature (Te) and density (ne) profiles. The TS system includes a pulsed, high power Nd:YAG laser with λ=1064 nm, together with five interference filter polychromators for spectral analysis of the scattered light in the near infrared region between λ=750-1061 nm. The system is able to measure Te up to approximately 10 keV within an error of ~10%, depending on ne and background light. The system will be equipped with an additional Nd:YAG laser with λ=1319 nm, so that the peak of the TS spectrum shifts up by 1319-1064=255nm. This has two advantages: First, the dual laser availability allows an in-situ spectral calibration, based on the two lasers being fired quasi-simultaneously; the two measured TS spectra, covering different wavelength regions, should yield an unchanged Te. Secondly, higher Te >10 keV can be measured as the peak of the TS spectrum shifts to shorter wavelengths. This avoids the polychromators having to cover λ<750 nm, where line emission and Bremsstrahlung increase strongly. The status of the 1319 nm Nd:YAG laser development and the design of optical components of the laser beam path will be shown and simulations will demonstrate the new system capabilities.
The C-2W device at TAE Technologies is now operational and represents another major step in a progression of advanced beam-driven Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) confinement devices that have prolonged the lifetime, increased the stability and have added significant neutral beam injection power to heat and sustain an FRC plasma. Crucial to plasma sustainment and increased lifetime is an understanding of the Jet plasma and X-point dynamics. A novel two-color multi-chord tangentially viewing interferometer has been designed and built to provide line averaged density at both 10.6 mm mid-infra-red and 1000 mm millimeter-wave wavelengths. This combination of sources allows a generous measurement dynamic range. The Jet interferometer is positioned in the mirror region of the confinement vessel (CV) to capture the initial high-density translated FRC source, the establishment of the Jet outflow from the merging of the two FRCs in the CV and the steady-state Jet plasma for the duration of the discharge which is expected to be of low line averaged density. An array of four tangential chords is anticipated to allow some profile reconstruction. Discussion of the performance and data will be presented.
The ITER bolometer diagnostic is planned to have 550 lines of sight (LOS) distributed all over the vessel. 240 channels are provided by cameras mounted in two Upper Ports and in one Equatorial Port. This paper describes the current status of the system level design of the port cameras and the solutions proposed how to implement all required camera components while meeting a multitude of competing requirements. Sensor holders, support structures and different apertures depending on the camera type (pinhole or collimator), cable connectors, ceramic track plates and many mineral insulated cables have to be integrated within a restricted space envelope to guarantee functionality. The impact of the interface requirements agreed with the port integrator, such as the mechanical mounting interface, the electrical interface and the load specifications, on the design flexibility will be discussed. Using the example of an Upper Port camera with 60 LOS, the assembly of the camera components is explained and two currently discussed architecture options of the RH-maintenance scheme in the hot cell are compared. Finally, considerations on a cost-effective design of the track plates and design optimizations based on thermal finite element analysis of the camera are presented.
Fiber optic pulsed polarimetry (FOPP) measures the magnetic field along an optical fiber by detecting changes in the direction of the polarization of laser light propagating through the fiber due to the Faraday effect. By observing the backscatter light as a function of time from specially prepared fibers with weak fiber Bragg gratings, it is possible to obtain both the time and spatial dependence of the field along the fibers. Single-mode optical fibers were installed in the poloidal direction on the outside of the thermal blanket on DIII-D. Light at 532 nm from a mode-locked Nd:YAG laser was injected into the optical fibers. The laser repetition rate was 895 MHz with a pulse length of <10 ps. The backscatter light was detected by high-speed avalanche photodiodes. Bandwidth limitations of the detectors resulted in a spatial resolution of approximately 2 cm. The detector system measures the Stokes components necessary to determine changes in the polarization of the backscattered light. A non-uniform spatial distribution of the poloidal field that varies during the shot is observed. The results will be compared with existing inductive probe data.Work supported by US DOE under Award No. DE-SC0009808 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
In order to achieve long-pulse H-mode plasma scenario over 400s with high heating power in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) device, the lower graphite divertor will be upgraded into tungsten (W) divertor with active water cooling, which consists of the W monoblocks as divertor targets and the flat-type W/Cu plasma facing components (PFCs) as the divertor dome and baffles. As a typical diagnostic tool, the divertor Langmuir probe (DivLP) diagnostic system will also be upgraded accordingly. This paper presents the design of two kinds of newly DivLP systems, which are planned to be utilized on the W monoblock assembly parts and the flat-type W/Cu assembly parts for the lower tungsten divertor, respectively, in terms of their structures and preliminary toroidal and poloidal layouts. The DivLP system can measure the steady-state and transient plasma parameters with the schemes of triple-probe, double-probe and single-probe, to obtain the spatial and temporal distribution of plasma on the divertor PFCs, which is useful for the discharge controlling and operation in EAST. In addition, the thermal finite element analysis of the two kinds of probes is also carried out by using three-dimensional (3D) finite element code ANSYS, which aimed to get the optimal designs.
Velocimetry analysis of density turbulence images obtained with beam emission spectroscopy (BES) on DIII-D is used to infer the 2D turbulent flow-field. The BES system on DIII-D obtains low-wavenumber density fluctuation images using an 8x8 grid of channels in the radial-poloidal plane with ≈1 cm spatial resolution and 1 μs sampling rate. The time-resolved 2D turbulent flow-field is obtained by spatiotemporally interpolating the limited resolution images and then applying an orthogonal dynamic programming (ODP) algorithm [1]. The algorithm is a frame-to-frame matching technique that works by using a global minimization method to determine which velocity vector maps one frame to another. In this work, the accuracy and uncertainty of the ODP algorithm applied to BES data is assessed using density and electrostatic potential fluctuation data from higher spatial resolution nonlinear gyrokinetic GENE simulations by comparing the velocimetry-estimated flow-field to the true ExB flow-field. Algorithm parameters, including search domain and spatiotemporal interpolation, are scanned to determine optimal values for most accurately estimating flow velocities.Supported by US DOE under Award No. 3DE-SC0001288, DE-FG02-08ER54999, and DE-FC02-04ER54698. [1] G. McKee et al, RSI 75 3490 (2004)
Wolter optics are a mature imaging technology, although they are new to Sandia’s Z machine pulsed-power accelerator. Wolter optics have a number of physics performance advantages over more traditional imaging technologies like pinholes and slits; however they require careful design and precise alignment to reduce data analysis uncertainties. This paper discusses the mechanical engineering and design of the Z Wolter optic system. Meeting the 500 µm source-to-optic distance tolerance requirement was a significant challenge since this relationship can only be measured indirectly, under vacuum, and is approaching the accuracy limit of available commercial off-the-shelf rangefinders. The devised solution locates a precision switch with tightly toleranced mechanical components. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed to quantify the system level contributions of the Wolter optic alignment stage motion control uncertainties, which demonstrated 1σ requirements compliance. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.
Adding toroidal arrays of magnetic probes at the top and bottom of NSTX-U would improve both the detection of the multimodal plasma response to applied magnetic perturbations and the identification of the poloidal structure of unstable plasma modes, as well as contribute to the validation of MHD codes. Analysis of the existing toroidal arrays on NSTX-U shows coverage of the torus is sufficient to simultaneously measure toroidal mode numbers up to n=3, but not to resolve the poloidal structure. The MHD code MARS-F/K has been used to identify poloidal locations that would improve the capability to measure stationary or near-stationary 3D fields that may result from the plasma response to external sources of non-axisymmetric fields. The study highlighted 6 poloidal positions where new arrays of both poloidal and radial magnetic field sensors will improve the poloidal resolution. Basing the sensor connection scheme on differences of pairs of probes and on the singular value decomposition condition number would allow a clear measurement of asymmetric signals. We propose configurations that would provide both a good signal/noise ratio and a good resilience of the array to the failure of a sensor. Supported by US DOE under grants DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-FG02-99ER54522, DE-AC02-09CH11466.
The JET gamma ray camera has been very recently upgraded within the EUROFUSION enhancement program by the Gamma-ray Camera Upgrade (GCU) project. Aim of the GCU project is to improve the spectroscopic properties of the existing gamma ray camera both in terms of energy resolution and high counting rate capability, in order to operate in the forthcoming high power D and DT campaign. In this work we describe the solutions developed to meet the target requirements (Energy resolution <5% at 1.1 MeV and counting rate capability >500 kHz) which will enable high energy resolution/high count rate gamma-ray spectroscopy measurements in the 19 detectors of the horizontal and vertical camera. In particular, it was necessary to design, develop and realize a new compact gamma ray spectrometer based on a LaBr3 scintillator crystal (25.4 x 16.9 mm2) coupled to a Silicon Photo-Multiplier. The expected enhanced performance of the upgraded JET gamma ray camera will be presented with an example of the first D plasma data collected in the JET 2018 C38 campaign.
A new reflectometry endstation has been developed specifically for the utilization of synchrotron radiation–based light sources. This paper describes the experimental setup and associated capabilities designed to measure crystal diffractive properties for a wide range of crystals, cut orientations, and surface geometries, including flat, convex, concave, and imaging arrangements. We are now adapting the system to render it suitable for use on the new NNSA soft x-ray calibration beam line (SXR) located at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Light Source. This beam line (16-2) is expected to come online later in 2018. The endstation setup is unique in that it also accommodates large reflection angles (>80°). The system has been prototyped and successfully commissioned at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source beam line 9.3.1. Data from various calibration studies of flat quartz (100) and potassium acid phthalate (KAP), cylindrically bent KAP ranging in radius of curvature from 2 to 9 inches, spherically bent quartz (203), 220Ge and 335Ge, and tronconique-bent CsAP (cesium biphthalate) are discussed. This work was done by MSTS, LLC, Contractor for the NNSS, under Contract DE-NA-0003624 and by SNL under contract DE-NA-0003525. DOE/NV/0003624--0025.
Electron cyclotron emission (ECE) measurements have been a powerful tool in diagnosing the electron temperature profiles in magnetically confined plasmas. It has a fairly good spatial and temporal resolutions, and high sampling rate. However, the underlying physics is broken to some extent when the electron velocity distribution has a high energy tail. On EAST, LHW is of high priority because it is the most efficient current-driven technique and the system is very robust. Therefore, it is of great importance to quantitatively study the spatial localization of ECE measurements in LHW-heated plasmas. In this work, the EC emission layer is simulated by using the code SPECE. The results from this code for ohmic plasmas have been compared with an individual code developed at EAST, and the agreement is good. The results for the LHW-heated plasmas indicate that there are two emission layers for an individual frequency, and they are separately attributed to the thermal electrons and non-thermal electrons. Even though the non-thermal emission layer is very broad, the emission power is much smaller than that from the thermal emission layer. The preliminary results imply that the ECE data could be still useful as a localized measurement in LHW-heated plasmas.
A fully digital type phase detector for plasma interferometry is developing. It can operate even in the situation where the phase changes rapidly or where the input signal is too small to drive the correct phase change from the IF signal. It directly converts the IF signal waveform of the interferometer to the phase signal by a data processing in a logic circuit, thereby the phase is derived from the full waveform of the IF signal. The IF signal of the interferometer is converted to I/Q signals by Hilbert transform, processed with a digital low-pass filter, and polar coordinates are converted by a CORDIC algorithm to obtain the phase signal. A simulation of the high speed full digital processing phase detector shows that the fringe jump does not occur until a phase change rate of 0.85 × 10^6 rad/s. This value is sufficiently large as compared with the predicted phase velocity in density rise due to the pellet injection. The phase conversion has been simulated using the real IF signal of the interferometer measured with Heliotron J. The results show that the phase signal is successfully calculated by the full digital processing method from the IF signal in which the phase derivation is impossible by the conventional analog phase detector.
In the previous study, design techniques with multiple apertures for a field of view (FoV) of the resistive bolometer system were developed [1] to reduce required number of bolometer channels for the determination of the total radiation power. In the present study, FoVs of the resistive bolometer system have been designed with previously developed techniques for JT-60SA. The FoV design is carried out with following setting requirements; (i) requirement of independent determination of the divertor and the main plasma radiation and (ii) limitation of a use of only allocated three diagnostic ports. The present design technique indicated that the main plasma can be covered with only two channels. The wide coverage by two channels is favorable for the replication of the bolometer system for improving reliability against the failure of a bolometer during experiment. It has been also confirmed that a radiation phantom placed at either of the main plasma region and the divertor region can be determined within 3 % and 15 % deviation, respectively, from the preset emissivity. In the conference, S/N ratio of the bolometer signal and estimated heat input on the bolometer with a simulated radiation profile will also be discussed. [1] R. Sano et.al., (to be submitted)
A detailed description of the design and performance of the x-ray imaging crystal spectrometer systems (XICS, HR-XIS) installed on W7-X is presented, along with cross-validation of analysis methods and comparison with other diagnostic measurements. A detailed comparison of tomographically inverted electron temperature profiles from XICS is made with local measurements from Thomson scattering over a wide range of plasma parameters. These comparisons show good agreement within the range of electron temperatures that XICS is sensitive to, and highlight the use of XICS as a robust electron temperature profile diagnostic. Also presented is a comparison between measurements made using the four impurity spectra routinely recorded by the XICS system (Ar16+, Ar17+, Fe24+ and Mo32+). Finally a comparison of XICS analysis techniques between a Bayesian model using the Minerva framework, and a stepwise analysis based on fitting of line integrated spectra is shown.
A new ultra-fast photomultiplier tube with associated drivers has been developed for use in the next generation of Gamma-ray Cherenkov detectors for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Pulse-dilation technology has been applied to a modified standard MCP based photomultiplier tube (PMT) to improve the temporal response time by about 10X. The new tube has been packaged suitably for deployment on the NIF and remote electronics designed to deliver the required non linear waveforms to the pulse dilation electrode. This is achieved with an avalanche pulse generator system capable of generating fast waveforms, arbitrarily over the useful parameter space. The pulse is delivered via impedance matching transformers and isolators, allowing the cathode to be ramped very quickly between two high voltages in a controlled non-linear manner. This results in near linear pulse dilation over several ns. The device has a built in fiducial system that allows easy calibration and testing with FO laser sources. Results will be presented demonstrating the greatly improved response time and other parameters of the device.
A Cherenkov neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) detector developed and constructed at LLNL was tested on OMEGA 13 m from the target in a collimated line of sight and at 5.3 m from the target in the open space inside the OMEGA Target Bay. The neutrons interacting with the quartz rod generate gammas, which, through Compton scattering, produce relativistic electrons that give rise to Cherenkov light. The Cherenkov nTOF detector consists of 8-mm-diam, 25-cm quartz hexagonal prism coupled with Hamamatsu gated microchannel plate photomultiplier tube R5916U-52. The tests were performed in DT direct-drive implosions with cryogenic and room-temperature targets with a wide range of neutron yields and ion temperatures. The results of the tests and comparison with other nTOF detectors on OMEGA will be presented. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
A new helium line-ratio spectral monitoring (HELIOS) diagnostic, using a piezoelectric valve with high duty cycles (on/off times ≲0.5 ms), allowing for good background correction, and measured particle flowrates on the order of ~1020 particles/second is being implemented on Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Prototype Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (Proto-MPEX). The HELIOS diagnostic is constructed so that the nozzle sits as close to the plasma column as possible, injecting helium directly into the plasma during operations. Fiber optics transfer the light emission from the plasma at the time of the helium puff(s) to a Filterscope system where intensity is measured at 100 kHz for three separate helium lines: 667.9 nm, 706.53 nm, and 728.0 nm. The open magnetic geometry of Proto-MPEX is ideal for testing and characterizing a HELIOS diagnostic system, comparing the derived ne and Te values to nearby double Langmuir probes and Thomson scattering measurements. Preliminary results imply a temperature and density range of 30-5 eV and 1x10^19 m-3 – 1x10^20 m-3, respectively, in the helicon region of Proto-MPEX. This work was supported by the US. D.O.E. contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 and DE-SC00013911.
TAE Technologies’ newly constructed C-2W experiment aims to improve the ion and electron temperature (Te) in a sustained field-reversed-configuration (FRC) plasma. A suite of Thomson scattering systems has been designed and constructed for electron temperature and density (ne) profile measurement. The systems are designed for electron density and temperature ranges of 1×10(12) cm(-3) to 2×10(14) cm(-3) and 10eV to 2keV. The central system will provide profile measurement of Te/ne at 16 radial locations from r = -9cm to r = 64cm with a temporal resolution of 20kHz/4 pulses or 1kHz/30 pulses. The jet system will provide profile measurement of Te/ne at 5 radial locations in the open field region from r = -5cm to r = 15cm with a temporal resolution of 100Hz. The systems and their components have been characterized and calibrated [1,2]. A maximum-likelihood algorithm has been applied for data processing and analysis. [1] T. Schindler Calibrations of Thomson Scattering Diagnostic on C-2W HTPD 2018 [2] A. Ottaviano Characterization of System Components for Thomson Scattering Diagnostics on C-2W HTPD 2018
The warm electron beam ion trap (WEBIT) is being developed as a calibration source for space-borne, high-throughput, high-resolution X-ray spectrometers, such as the X-ray Astrophysics Recovery Mission (XARM) Resolve quantum calorimeter. Historically, calibration sources for calorimeter spectrometers have relied on characteristic line emission from x-ray tubes, fluorescing metals, and radioactive sources. The WEBIT, in contrast, relies on emission from x-ray transitions in hydrogenic and helium-like ions whose energies are well known and whose line shapes are relatively simple. The WEBIT can create astrophyscially relevant ions whose x-ray emission falls in the 0.3 to 12 keV science bandpass of Resolve and has a portable design advantageous for a calibration source. The WEBIT will be used to calibrate Resolve’s instrumental line shape and gain scale as a function of various operational parameters during both detector subsystem level and instrumental level testing. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
The λ≈1 mm (f=288 GHz) interferometer for the Lithium Tokamak Experiment β (LTX-β) device will use a centerstack-mounted retro-reflector mirror to provide line density measurements along a single radial chord at the midplane. Previously this diagnostic has been used for routine line density measurements in LTX. The current work investigates the capabilities of the system as a simultaneous far-forward scattering diagnostic, which can provide line-integrated measurement of density fluctuations within the divergence of the probe beam for perpendicular wavenumbers k⟂≲2 cm^-1. The far-forward scattering diagnostic is expected to provide enhanced sensitivity for high frequency coherent density oscillations (e.g. Alfvénic modes due to NBI on LTX-β) as well as for broadband turbulence. Comprehensive simulations of the scattered beam using beam tracing and full-wave codes will be used to develop quantitative estimates for the scattered signal using target fluctuations. These calculations will also consider the 3-D scattering geometry due to the magnetic configuration of the spherical tokamak and the radial view of the diagnostic. Analysis of data from previous measurements on LTX will also be presented. Supported by U.S. DoE Contracts DE-FG02-99ER54527 and DE-AC02-09CH11466.
A multi-energy soft X-ray pin-hole camera based on the PILATUS3 100K x-ray detector, produced commercially by Dectris Ltd., has recently been installed on the Madison Symmetric Torus. This photon-counting detector consists of a two-dimensional array of ~100,000 pixels for which the photon lower-threshold cutoff energy ¬Ec can be independently set for each pixel, allowing the measurement of plasma x-ray emissivity in multiple energy ranges with a unique combination of spatial and spectral resolution and the inference of a variety of important plasma properties (e.g. Te, nZ, Zeff). The energy dependence of each pixel is calibrated for the 2-7 keV range by scanning individual “trimbit” settings, which set Ec, while the detector is exposed to fluorescence emission from Ag, In, Mo, Ti, V, and Zr targets. The resulting data for each line are then fit to a characteristic “S-curve” which determines the mapping between the 64 possible trimbit settings and Ec for each pixel. The statistical variation of this calibration from pixel-to-pixel and its effect on overall energy resolution are explored. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences program under Award Numbers DE-SC0015474 and DE-FC02-05ER54814.
Collective Thomson scattering provides precise density and temperature measurements in many plasma-physics experiments. The accuracy of these measurements is dependent on the underlying assumptions in deriving the structure factor S(k,ω). The core assumption made is that the underlying electron distribution functions in inertial confinement fusion relevant plasmas are Maxwellian. Here we present a statistically based, quantitative analysis of the uncertainties, from these assumptions, in the measured electron density and temperature. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
A recent experiment on the National Ignition Facility(NIF) radiographed the evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor(RT) instability under high and low drive cases, where high drive means the radiation energy flux is comparable to the mass energy flux. This experiment showed that under a high drive the growth rate of the RT instability is reduced relative to the low drive case. It is believed the high drive launches a radiative shock, increases the temperature of the post-shock region, and ablates the spikes, which reduces the RT growth rate. The plasma parameters must be measured to validate this claim. We present a target platform for making X-Ray Thomson Scattering(XRTS) measurements on radiation hydrodynamics experiments on NIF to measure the electron temperature of the shocked region in the above cases. We show that a previously fielded NIF radiation hydrodynamics platform can be modified to allow for non-collective XRTS measurements. Photometrics and a noise estimation using synthetic scattering spectra are performed to demonstrate the measurement error. This work is funded by the NNSA-DS and SC-OFES Joint Program in High-Energy-Density Laboratory Plasmas, grant number DE-NA0002956 and the National Science Foundation through the Basic Plasma Science and Engineering program.
A novel method for measuring erosion of high-Z plasma facing components (PFCs) has been developed using bulk materials implanted with a single isotope a few microns deep or shallower from the surface. Changes to the depth of the implanted isotope, measured by particle-induced gamma emission, indicate erosion/deposition at the surface of the PFC. In addition to applicability in ex situ analysis, implanted depth markers can be deployed for an Accelerator-based In situ Materials Surveillance (AIMS) diagnostic, which enables shot-by-shot analysis of the inner wall in fusion energy experiments. This work describes the characterization of the implanted layer, as well as assessment of its viability in terms of thermal stability and the retention of bulk properties of the PFC surface layer traversed by the implanting beam. Implantation temperatures from 300 to 700 C and sample baking from 120 to 1000 C for 1 to 24 hours were studied. A synthetic diagnostic developed to assess measurement sensitivity and aid in interpreting experimental data shows excellent agreement between simulated and experimental measurements. The experiments, combined with the synthetic diagnostic, show erosion/deposition sensitivities of ~ 40 nm for high-Z PFCs.
Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for in situ characterization of matter in the high energy density regime. An EXAFS platform is currently being developed on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Development of a suitable X-ray backlighter involves minimizing the temporal duration and source size while maximizing spectral smoothness and brightness. One approach involves imploding a spherical shell, which generates a large of amount of heat and an X-ray flash near stagnation. Radiation hydrodynamics modeling improvements for EXAFS are possible by filling the shell with a moderate-Z gas. Here we present measurements of X-ray source size, spectral-temporal emission, and integrated spectrum produced by imploded Ar-filled CH shells. Compared to an unfilled shell, we find that 1 atm Ar fill significantly increases the X-ray yield but also increases the source size, whereas 4 atm Ar fill produces a similar yield but reduced the source size. This work performed under the auspices of the Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, (LLNS) under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Dispersion interferometer (DI) can avoid the influence of mechanical vibration, and without the fringe jump error at the highest line-integrated electron density (1020m-2) on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). In previous bench test, the power distribution curve with nonlinear crystal angle rotation of second harmonic laser has been verified, the line-integrated density can be measured with 1017m-2 sensitivity and 20 μs temporal resolution. In this paper, a dispersion interferometer based on a CO2 laser with dual plasma passage measurements of line-integrated electron density on EAST has been built and will be tested in experiments. The DI system did not need vibration isolator, most components are installed on two floors bench which welding in a stable laser room with vibration less than 10 μm, the CO2 laser beam vertical through the vacuum vessel and 9cm from the center of the plasma. The whole system has been built and prepare for the experiment on EAST. The development of multi-channel dispersion interferometer is discussed.
There are many high-energy-density experiments that require efficient atomic line emission x-ray sources for diagnostic applications such as imaging (e.g. backlit radiography) and material testing (e.g. diffraction measurements). To date, most well-characterized laser-generated line sources efficient enough for these purposes have photon energies ≤10.2 keV. They are typically created by irradiating a thin foil using a 351nm, long pulse laser (≥1 ns) in the range of 1015 W/cm2. The dominant line emission, Heα, from these sources is the result of 2p –> 1s transitions from He-like ions. For the new Crystal Backlighter Imager at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), we developed a Selenium Heα source at 11.652 keV. The Se He-like line emission was investigated in terms of absolute spectra and laser conversion efficiency into the lines as a function of viewing angle relative to the foil normal. Time-integrated and time-resolved data from multiple NIF shots will be presented. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and by General Atomics under Contract DE-NA0001808.
The particle time-of-flight (pTOF) detector is a polycrystalline CVD-diamond photoconducting diode, which has been used to measure the shock-and compression- bang time using fusion products from DD, D3He or DT reactions in Inertial Confinement Fusion implosions at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Current implementations of the pTOF detector have been able to provide these measurements for nuclear yields in the range of 1010-1015. However, numerous NIF implosions have generated yields which exceed the sensitivity range of pTOF. A bang time measurement for a NIF implosion with a yield of 5×1016 using a 1 cm diameter pTOF detector requires a maximum sensitivity of 5×10-11 V ns per DT neutron. In this contribution, we present the path for implementing a low-sensitivity pTOF detector for bang-time measurements in high-yield (~1016) implosions using a single crystalline diamond. Data presented from recent OMEGA implosions will test if single crystal diamond detectors can achieve the desired sensitivity thresholds for NIF. Having bang time measurements will be essential in our effort of understanding the timing difference between x-ray and nuclear bang-times in ICF implosions. This work was supported in part by DOE and LLNL (Subcontract No. B613027).
A high-confinement operating regime with plasma lifetimes significantly exceeding previous empirical scaling laws was recently obtained by combining plasma gun edge biasing and Neutral Beam Injection in the C-2U field-reversed configuration (FRC) experiment [1]. Several diagnostics used on the C-2U device to measure fast neutral flux have been relatively calibrated, including neutral particle analyzers [2] (NPA) and neutral particle bolometers [3] (NPB). However, absolute calibration is required to take full advantage of these instruments' capabilities for the C-2W experiment. A Calibration Ion Beam (CIB) system has been constructed for this purpose and here we present performance characteristics of this device as well as calibration results for neutral particle detectors. [1] M. W. Binderbauer, et al., Physics of Plasmas 22, 056110 (2015). [2] R. Clary, et al., Review of Scienti
An important diagnostic value of a shot at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the resultant center-of-mass motion of the imploding capsule. This residual velocity contributes to the efficiency of converting LASER energy into plasma temperature. A new analysis method extracts the effective hot spot motion by using information from multiple nToF lines-of-sight (LoS). This technique fits a near Gaussian spectrum to the nToF scope traces and overcomes reliance on models to relate the plasma temperature to the mean energy of the emitted neutrons and requires to have at least four nToF LoS. Results analyzing DT as well DD peaks on recent NIF shots with this technique will be presented. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
The interaction of radiation with media is a ubiquitous phenomenon. In astrophysics, ionizing radiation interacts with molecular clouds with the fate of the clouds determined by the optical depth of the cloud. In inertial confinement fusion (ICF) radiation interacts with the capsule, ablating material and driving shocks. Recent work by Poujade et al (2015) performed simulations, which indicate that if the opacity of the medium has a sharp edge in the radiation spectral domain a second ionization front can form. This second ionization front can form a second shock, which they termed an edge-shock. One example they consider is radiation from a 100 eV source incident on carbon. In this case, the carbon K-edge (~282 eV) corresponds to the peak of the radiation and the simulation shows the source radiation is deposited at two different locations creating both the main shock and an edge shock. IN ICF simulations, extra shocks are often observed and may be due to this mechanism. We will discuss the experimental considerations to observe both the main and edge shock in such a system. We will also present a preliminary experimental design.
Accurate operation and high performance of the open field line plasma surrounding the Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) is crucial to achieving the goals of successful temperature ramp up and confinement improvement on C-2W. Knowledge and control of the open field line plasma requires extensive diagnostic efforts. A suite of diagnostics, which consists of microwave interferometry, dispersive spectroscopy and spatial heterodyne spectroscopy, is being developed to measure electron density, ion temperature and particle outflow velocity at various locations along the open magnetic field lines. A detailed overview of these diagnostics is presented.
A Talbot-Lau X-ray interferometer can map electron density gradients in High Energy Density (HED) samples. In the x-ray deflectometry configuration a single Moiré image can provide refraction, attenuation, elemental composition, and scatter information. In order to make the diagnostic available for a wide range of HED experiments, pulsed power and high power laser produced x-ray sources were evaluated as potential backlighters for an 8 keV Talbot-Lau x-ray deflectometer consisting of free standing ultrathin gratings. For pulsed power experiments, single (2 × 64 μm) and double (4 × 25 μm) copper x-pinches were driven at ∼1 kA/ns. For high power laser experiments, K-alpha emission was obtained by illuminating copper targets (500 x 500 x 12.5 µm3 foils, 20 µm diameter wire, and >10 µm diameter spheres) with a 30 J, 8-30 ps laser pulse and a 25 um Cu wire with a 60 J, 10 ps laser pulse. Grating survival was assessed along with fringe formation and contrast for all x-ray sources. Electron density profiles were obtained while the diagnostic and detector performance (x-ray film, CCD, and imaging plates) was analyzed in context of high energy density sample characterization. The results demonstrate the potential of TXD as an electron density diagnostic for HED plasmas.
Collisional merging experiments of a field-reversed configuration (FRC) at super-Alfvénic velocity have been conducted in the FAT-CM device. In the experiments, two FRCs accelerated to the velocity of 150 – 200 km/s are collided and merged in the confinement section with a quasi-static confinement magnetic field. Therefore, it is necessary to measure high-frequency pulse magnetic field superposed on a quasi-stationary signal. The magnetic field is generally measured by a magnetic coil in the pulse discharge experiments, however the coil has nonlinear characteristics in the wide frequency of the conducted experiments. Therefore, a hall sensor has been applied as a wideband magnetic field measurement in the FAT-CM experiments. On a magnetic field measurement in the confinement section, it is confirmed that the sensor has the response speed and linear characteristic for the magnetic field with the rising time of about 40 ms and its output voltage does not saturate in the magnetic field of about 0.09 T. Combination of the hall sensor and the magnetic coil realizes complete measurements of the magnetic field in the range of the FAT-CM experiments. In this work, dynamic process of collisional merging in the FAT-CM has been measured by the combined magnetic diagnostic system.
A time-resolved, vacuum-ultra-violet (VUV) spectrometer diagnostic has been implemented on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). This spectrometer is designed to make Optical Thomson Scattering (OTS) measurements of the key plasma parameters in under-dense Inertial Confinement Fusion Hohlraum plasmas. We present the results of the initial commissioning experiments which were carried out in 2016/2017. These experiments include 3ω (351nm) Thomson scattering measurements of the plasma parameters of plasma plumes launched via laser-heating a plastic disc, and background VUV emission measurements in ICF relevant hohlraum target configurations. We will discuss the results, as well as ongoing work to improve the diagnostic performance in preparation for commissioning of the forthcoming 5ω (211nm) OTS probe laser, which is scheduled for commissioning in late 2018.
To study Local Helicity Injection (LHI) dynamics and current drive, a new insertable B ̇ magnetic probe was deployed on the Pegasus spherical tokamak. The Magnetic Radial Array (MrA) probe consists of an array of 15 pickup coils (~5×8 mm each) that measure B ̇_z(R) over a 15 cm linear extent. The coils consist of traces embedded in a printed circuit board (PCB), with twisted-pair wires bringing the signal off the PCB to reduce noise. Three different coil designs are utilized to balance frequency response and coil sensitivity. Helmholtz coil measurements confirm bandwidth of ≲3.5 MHz and sensitives of 0.18/0.35/0.96 mV T^(-1) s. The probe uses the carbon armor and vacuum assembly from an existing probe. MrA probe measurements during LHI show significant magnetic activity at ~600 kHz that is localized to the plasma edge. To complement this high-speed B ̇ array, a lower-bandwidth (≤40 kHz) B(R) probe array is being developed. It utilizes ratiometric Hall effect sensors (with built-in amplifiers and compensators) that are mounted in a 3D printed form. This probe will provide measurements of field strength (|B|≤120 mT) and direction at 10 spatial points (ΔR=1.5 cm), to support studies of equilibrium field structure and current dynamics. Work supported by US DOE grant DE-FG02-96ER54375
Field-reversed configuration (FRC) Amplification via Translation – Collisional Merging (FAT-CM) experiments have recently commenced to study physics phenomena of collisions and merged FRC plasma states [1]. Two independently formed FRCs are translated into the confinement region of the FAT-CM device, collided near the midplane of the device with a relative speed of up to ~400 km/s, and a final merged FRC plasma state is achieved; this FRC collisional merging technique is essentially the same as in the C-2/C-2U experiments [2,3]. To measure magnetic field profiles of the translated and merged FRC plasmas, an internal magnetic probe array, developed/provided by TAE Technologies [3], has been installed in the midplane of the FAT-CM device. Initial magnetic field measurements indicate that both the translated and the merged FRC plasma states exhibit a clear field-reversal structure, which is qualitatively in good agreement with 2-D MHD simulations.
[1] F. Tanaka et al., in 26th Int’l Toki Conf., P2-17 (2017).
[2] M.W. Binderbauer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 045003 (2010).
[3] H. Gota et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D706 (2012).
Real-time phase calibration of the ITER profile reflectometer is essential due to the long plasma duration and path length changes during a discharge. Progress has been recently made in addressing this issue by employing real-time phase calibration on the DIII-D profile reflectometer system. With installing a thin wire perpendicularly at the end of the waveguide transmission system, the round trip phase shift from the wire is detected simultaneously with the plasma phase shifts. Variations in the reflectometer round trip path length (~26 m) can then be determined during each DIII-D plasma discharge, allowing the variation in the phase due to this movement to be accounted for and removed. The round-trip reflectometer path length is observed to vary by ~3 mm (RMS value) during a DIII-D discharge. With the real-time correction, the measurement accuracy is improved. Since the wire retro-reflected signal is ~10 dB smaller than the plasma signal, no effect is observed on the plasma density measurement. Importantly, the wire calibration signal is approximately independent of the reflectometer launch polarization, allowing this polarization to be changed to match the plasma pitch angle. Supported by the U.S. DOE under DE-FG02-08ER54984 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
EAST tokamak has been equipped with upper tungsten divertor since 2014 to improve the heat exhaust capability. In order to study the behavior and radial transport of tungsten ions in long-pulse H-mode plasmas, a space-resolved spectrometer working at 30-570Å is newly developed to measure the tungsten emission profile. Good spectral resolution of Δλ0 = 4-5 pixels, sufficient temporal resolution up to 50ms/frame and high spatial resolution of 0.8cm are obtained simultaneously. Absolute intensity calibration is carried out by comparing the bremsstrahlung continuum intensity between EUV and visible ranges. Radial profiles of tungsten emissions from 4p-4s and 4p-4p transitions in W42+ – W45+ ions are successfully obtained at 45-70 Å and 120-140 Å in high-temperature discharges (Te>2.5keV), e.g. W43+ at 61.334Å, W44+ at 60.93Å, W45+ at 62.336 Å, W42+ at 129.41Å, W43+ at 126.29 Å and W45+ at 126.998Å. Radial density profiles of W42+ – W45+ ions are analyzed with measured Te and ne profiles and photon emissivity coefficient (PEC) from ADAS database.
Fast visible imaging of the lower divertor surface has been implemented to study the structure and dynamics of lobes induced by resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) in ELM suppression experiments in DIII-D. The best compromise between amount of light and sharp imaging was obtained using emission at 601 nm that in ionizing plasmas is due to molecular deuterium emission from the Fulcher-α band. Multiple spatially resolved peaks in the D2 emission, taken as a proxy for the particle flux, are readily resolved during RMPs, in contrast to the heat flux measured by infrared cameras, which shows little spatial structure in ITER-like conditions. The 25 mm field lens provides high spatial resolution from the centerpost to the outer shelf over 50° toroidally that overlaps the field of view of the IRTV. The image is coupled to a Phantom 7.3 camera using a Schott wound fiber bundle, providing high temporal resolution that allows the lobe dynamics to be resolved between ELMs and across ELM suppression onset. These measurements are used to study the heat and particle flux in 3D magnetic fields, and to validate models for the plasma response to RMPs. *Work supported by U.S. DOE under DE-FG02-07ER54917, DE-FG02-05ER54809, DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-AC52-07NA27344, DE-NA0003525, and DE-AC04-94AL85000.
Gated-photomultiplier-tubes (gated-PMT’s) with increased robustness against background noises due to the hard x-ray incidence have been implemented on the 600-channel neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) detector at Institute of Laser Engineering (ILE), Osaka University. This diagnostic uses 600 individual neutron detectors consisting of a plastic scintillator and a liner-focused PMT, allowing to obtain a large detection area with long flight path (13.5 m). A very simple gating circuit has been developed to gate out the primary x-ray peak and measure the subsequent neutron signals without causing the anode current saturation. By applying a reverse potential between the cathode and first dynode (d1), we succeeded in suppressing subsidiary signals called “after pulse” produced after the main pulse (see Fig. 1), mainly due to ionic feedback to the photocathode. Cathode-d1 voltages of all the PMT’s are simultaneously switched by only one switching circuit module coupled with a digital delay pulse generator (e.g. DG645) and a DC power supply. The switching circuit provides + 200-V precisely defined squire pulse with a reasonably steep front of 80 ns. A high cut-off ratio of anode current of more than 103 can be obtained under constant illumination in the 'on' and 'off' conditions. Our design
Langmuir probe diagnostic is one of the widely used techniques for plasma parameters measurements. While the construction and installation of a probe usually represent no significant complications, the data analysis encounters multi-layered challenges. All parts of an IV characteristic are bound to more than one plasma parameter, which means that self-consistent calculations are needed and cross errors can never be completely excluded. A theory for data interpretation in the presence of a magnetic field is tested for a cylindrical Langmuir probe in a linear low-temperature plasma device Aline. The probe is placed on a 3D manipulator parallel to the magnetic field direction and a position scan is performed. Tests are done in a capacitive radio-frequency (RF) discharge at 3.5 cm above an RF antenna. Typical RF sheath size around the antenna is in the order of few cm, depending on the neutral gas pressure, coupled power and magnetic field strength, and the sheath region is avoided to exclude strong RF perturbations. Using the theory electron densities are obtained from the current values at the plasma potential. Results are calibrated by line-integrated density measurements of a 26.5 GHz microwave interferometer MWI 2650 from Miwitron and reasonable agreement is observed.
Frequency Modulation reflectometer requires that the whole frequency range is linearly swept. For this purpose, Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is finely tuned to accomplish the linear frequency sweep. However many components such as frequency multiplier, power amplifier, filter, etc, distort the frequency sweep characteristics. In addition, the frequency dispersion of the wave guide also distorts the frequency sweep. In KSTAR Q band reflectometer, a slightly over-sized wave guide (Ka band) is used for the microwave transmission. So the frequency sweep is significantly affected by the frequency dispersion of the wave guide. Although this distortion can be avoided by using a sufficiently over-sized wave guide, it is not easy to replace the existing wave guide installed inside of a heavily packed port of super conducting magnet tokamak. In this presentation, the distortion of frequency sweep due to the wave guide is quantitatively assessed and a compensation algorithm is devised. The algorithm is explained in detail and the compensated and non-compensated results are compared.
Microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) system for EAST tokamak has been constructed with 96 channels (12 poloidal x 8 radial). The illumination beam of MIR has eight independent frequencies which can be flexibly adjusted in W band (75 - 105 GHz). The receiver system has eight antennae aligned in the vertical direction. The integrated electronic systems have been tested. We also set up an artificial simulation system using a radius adjustable rotating plate equipped with metallic grating-like structure to simulate cutoff-layer and the density fluctuation in plasma to benchmark performance of EAST MIR in laboratory. The characteristics of EAST MIR will be given.
One of several diagnostic systems being developed by the US is the Upper Wide Angle Viewing System (UWAVS) which provides real-time, simultaneous visible and infrared images of the ITER divertor regions via optical systems located in five upper ports. The primary design challenge of the UWAVS is maximizing system performance while surviving the severe electromagnetic and nuclear ITER environment. A first mirror material study was conducted, determining that single crystal molybdenum was the best choice for the first two mirrors of the in-vessel assembly. A fail open, bellows actuated shutter with cross pivot flexure design was determined to be the most reliable mechanism to protect the foremost plasma facing mirror. A geometrically representative glow discharge mirror cleaning system was designed and tested to maximize cleaning effectiveness while minimizing optical degradation of the first two plasma facing molybdenum mirrors. R&D efforts, technical challenges and issues, and design and analysis results are presented.This work is supported by US DOE Contract No. DE-AC02-09CH11466 under subcontract number S013437-C. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ITER Organization.
A novel scintillator-based imaging neutral particle analyzer (INPA), which provides energy-resolved radial profiles of confined fast ions, has been designed and installed on the DIII-D tokamak. The system measures charge-exchanged energetic neutrals by viewing an “active” neutral beam through a 1D pinhole camera with a rear collimating slit that defines the neutral particle collection sightlines and radial positions probed in the plasma. The incident neutrals are ionized by ultra-thin carbon stripping foils of 10 nm thickness with the local tokamak magnetic field acting as a magnetic spectrometer to disperse the ions onto a scintillator. The strike position on the phosphor is determined by the fast ion energy and sightline, while the intensity of emitted light from the phosphor is proportional to the ion flux. Fast camera measurements of the scintillator provide 2D images of the escaping neutrals mapped to energy and radial position in the plasma. The INPA system images a broad radial range from the plasma core to edge and deuterium energies up to 80 keV, with energy resolution of ~7.5 keV and pitch resolution of <5°. Initial data demonstrates that the system has exceptionally good signal to noise and provides unprecedented details of phase space dynamics.
Neutron, gamma-ray and x-ray imaging are important diagnostic tools at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) for measuring the two-dimensional (2D) size and shape of the neutron producing region, for probing the remaining ablator, and measuring the extent of the DT plasmas during the stagnation phase of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) implosions. Novel analysis tools for primary fusion and down-scattered (neutrons that have scattered off the compressed ICF shell) neutron images observed with the NIF have been developed that allow the forward reconstruction of the fuel density profile. This is extremely important with far reaching impact in this field as this work help fills a critical diagnostic gap in cryogenic DT experiments at NIF, namely the diagnoses of the cold compressed shell. It is currently believed that asymmetries and defects in the shell are leading factors in performance degradation in ICF implosion, and our ability to diagnose them is critical in order to work toward improvements. The recently commissioned second primary neutron image line of sight (there are now a polar and an equatorial primary image) has allowed us to perform a 3D reconstruction of the primary hotspot using these two views. This work promises 3D tomography of both the hot burning plasma and the compressed shell in NIF explosions with additional lines of sight. We present the detailed algorithms used for this characterization, and the resulting reconstructed cold fuel shells from experimental data collected at NIF.
A quartz based Cherenkov radiator has been implemented at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to provide a new high precision measurement of the spectrum of 14.1 MeV DT fusion neutrons. This detector has two benefits over traditional scintillator-based nToFs. (1) it enables a high precision (<50ps) co-registered measurement of both a thresholded gamma spectrum and the neutron spectrum on a single record; other methods typically require gamma and neutron signals to be co-registered via other diagnostics and/or dedicated timing experiments. (2) the temporal width of the instrument response function (IRF) is reduced to < 1.0ns thereby reducing the uncertainty in the Brysk ion temperature derived from the width of the measured neutron spectrum. Analysis of co-registered gamma and neutron data from NIF DT implosions on multiple lines-of-sight indicate that the bulk vector velocity of the implosion hot-spot can be determined to within 5 km/s, while analysis of the neutron spectrum indicates the uncertainty in the ion temperature due to the IRF is reduced to approx. 0.1keV. LLNL-ABS-744335 This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Triplet sets of replaceable graphite rod collector probes (CPs), each with collection surfaces on opposing faces oriented normal to the magnetic field, were inserted at the outboard mid-plane of DIII-D to understand divertor tungsten (W) transport in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL). Each CP collects particles along field lines with different parallel collection lengths (determined by the rod diameters and SOL radial transport) giving radial profiles from the main wall inward to R-Rsep~6cm. Rutherford backscatter spectrometry of the CPs provided areal density profiles of elemental W coverage. Higher peak W content measured on the probe face connected along the field lines to the inner divertor indicate higher concentration of W in the plasma upstream of the CP. The CPs were also used in a first-of-a-kind experiment using isotopically-enriched, W-coated divertor tiles. Laser ablation mass spectroscopy validates the isotopic tracer technique through analysis of CPs exposed during L-mode discharges with the outer strike point on the enriched W tile inserts. Results provided quantitative information on the W source and transport from specific poloidal locations within the lower outer divertor region. US DOE support DE-AC05-00OR22725, DE-FG02-07ER54917, DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-NA0003525.
The measurement of supper thermal electron population is an important issue for the study of runaway electrons in the low density discharges or during the disruptions in tokamak plasmas. The fast electron bremsstrahlung (FEB) emissions resulted from the interaction between the low energy runaway electrons and the bulk plasma can provide significant information on the runaway generation process. A multi-channel FEB diagnostics has been developed on the J-TEXT tokamak. The FEB system observe the FEB emissions in the energy range of 30~300keV. It can monitor the runaway generation process since its beginning of formation.
Important plasma-surface processes in burning plasmas include erosion due to physical and chemical sputtering, material redeposition and transport, mechanical failure, and other unique topics such as fuel recycling, tungsten fuzz formation, tritium retention, all of which are wall-material dependent and highly dynamic. It is also anticipated that better understanding through in-situ measurements will lead to better plasma performance and plasma-facing material development. Although a suite of surface diagnostics exists for material science, chemistry and others, very few of them can be directly applied to in-situ surface diagnostics due to the hostile environment of burning plasmas and the presence of tesla magnetic fields. Fusion neutrons only make the problem more challenging. Here we review the existing fusion surface diagnostics, as well as current status of surface measurements that can potentially be adapted to in-situ monitoring or characterization of particle flux, species identification, erosion rate, particle recycling, energy flux, and their temporal evolutions. Examples from several fusion devices and plasma experiments will be given. New opportunities for in-situ diagnostics associated with novel material interrogation techniques will be emphasized.
A supersonic gas-jet target platform has been activated on the OMEGA laser. The plasma formed using a gas-jet target and ~3 kJ of UV energy from the OMEGA Laser System was characterized using 2ω Thomson scattering. Thomson scattering provided accurate time-resolved measurements of plasma conditions including electron density, plasma temperature, and ionization state. Plasma conditions include electron temperatures in the 0.5-keV to 1-keV range and electron densities between 1 × 10^19cm^3 and 9 × 10^19cm^3 in a nitrogen plasma. The measurements made using Thomson scattering are then compared with the results of the radiation–hydrodynamics code HYDRA. These initial measurements demonstrate the capabilities of the OMEGA gas-jet as a platform for future laser–plasma interaction science. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
Measurements of fusion neutron spectrometry is a useful diagnostic for DD neutron yield from 109 to 1015 n/s for EAST deuterium plasma discharges with NBI, LHWl, ICRF heating and their combination. A suite of compact neutron spectrometers, based on liquid scintillators and a stilbene crystal detector has been implemented on EAST for lower yield neutron measurements, and the ion temperature values were obtained from the deduced neutron spectra by a forward fitting method applied to the measured pulse height spectra. The neutron time-of-flight enhanced diagnostics (TOFED) spectrometer has been installed at the J port of EAST in order to study the behavior of fast ions. The new design is shown to enhance the discrimination capability and will provide fusion neutron spectra with reduced admixture of multiple scattering events. A new fully digital data acquisition system with on-board CFD timing function has been adopted and can provide a high count rate capability up to about 1 MHz/channel of the spectrometer. During the EAST 2017 summer campaign, synergized diagnostics from the TOFED and liquid scintillator spectral measurements were performed for the first time and the different components of neutron spectra are successfully separated at EAST plasmas with NBI heating.
In fusion devices, subtle changes at the plasma edge (pedestal and scrape-off layer) can have a dramatic influence on confinement performance and anomalous transport properties of the plasma. In order to better understand physical processes happening in this region, we describe a detailed analysis of a novel diagnostic allowing the direct measurement of the local radial electric fields in the pedestal region in NSTX-U. Using a tunable probe laser to deplete the naturally populated n=3 level to a Rydberg state and the existing Thomson-scattering optics, it is shown that the local electric field can be measured through the Stark induced resonances observed as a dip in the D_α emission. The proposed diagnostic gives measurements resolved both in space and time with a 10 ms time-step. Using our simulated absorption spectrum; a precision of ~2 kV/m in regions with a local electric field of 50 kV/m is predicted when we account for density fluctuations and statistical uncertainties due to the acquisition and fitting process.
Currently Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) has completed its physical design and started the phase of engineering design. To make transfer easier from Phase I to Phase II with the same machine, a larger size with R = 6.6 m/a = 1.8 m, BT = 6–7 T has been chosen. Diagnostic port plug, as one important part for reactor, will provide a common platform to support or contain variety diagnostic systems that require an external radial access to the plasma. Now we are considering two diagnostic port plug models, one is ITER-like case which is similar to the ITER diagnostic port plug structure, and another one is towards DEMO case, as a new way to DEMO. In this paper, we present a preliminary design and study for CFETR ITER-like case diagnostic port plug. Firstly, the design justification is given and equal diagnostic port plug model is designed; Then, EM loads and total displacements during a 32ms disruption of a 19.6 MA plasma current have been shown; at last, some important issues, including diagnostic port plug installation/removal and remote handing for maintains, have been discussed.
The conditions and dynamics of neon gas puff z-pinch plasmas at pinch time are studied on COBRA, Cornell’s pulsed power generator (current rise time of ~240 ns and ~0.9 MA peak current). A 526.5 nm, 10 J Thomson scattering diagnostic laser enables probing of the plasma conditions of these implosions with both spatial and temporal resolution. The use of two laser pulses--both 3 ns in duration--that can be separated by up to 10 ns allows observation of time-resolved spectra for a total consecutive time of 6 ns. This setup, at 90° to the laser with a field of view of 0.4 mm on-axis, provides sub-nanosecond resolution of pinch evolution through stagnation. Two additional time-gated collection optics, one at 90° to the laser path and one at 30°, probe a 4 mm field of view across the axis. Based on whether the collection angle (and therefore the k vector) is large or small, the spectral feature dependence on the electron density is, respectively, more or less sensitive to variations in density [1]. By comparing the spectra from two angles, it is possible to ascertain an approximate electron density from the ion acoustic feature.
[1] D. Foula et al., PRL 95, 195005 (2005).
*Work supported by NNSA SSAP under DOE Cooperative Agreement No. DE-NA0001836 and LLNL subcontract no. B619181.
Proto-MPEX is a prototype design for the Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX), a steady-state linear device being developed to study plasma material interactions (PMI). The primary purpose of Proto-MPEX is developing plasma heating source concepts for MPEX, which include a 13.56 MHz half-turn copper helicon antenna surrounding an aluminum nitride (AlN) window, whose strong electromagnetic (EM) fields inhibit reliable data collection of the helicon region from most installed diagnostics. Fluoroptic probes (FPs) are unique thermometric diagnostics composed of an optical fiber with a temperature sensitive phosphorescent sensor tip that are immune to EM field interference. Five fluoroptic probes are installed under the antenna such that they are in thermal contact with the AlN window. These FPs estimate heat loss from the plasma under the helicon antenna via observed temperature increases on the helicon window. Analyzed in conjunction with installed thermocouples (TCs), double Langmuir probes/Mach probes (DLPs/MPs), and SOLPS modeling, the FPs quantify the helicon plasma, identifying dominant loss mechanisms for specific machine operating parameters. *This work was supported by the U.S. D.O.E. contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.
We report temporally resolved, simultaneous measurements of the turbulent Reynolds Stresses in both the parallel and perpendicular directions and the corresponding particle fluxes in the fusion relevant cylindrical magnetized plasma device Controlled Shear Decorrelation eXperiment (CSDX). CSDX simulates the plasma conditions of and multiple plasma instabilities that can arise in the scrape off layer of fusion devices. In this study, we designed and used a 6 tip - Langmuir probe in a novel yet simple design to simultaneously measure all the three dimensional components (radial, azimuthal and axial) of fluctuations in velocity from the floating potentials and plasma densities with high temporal resolution. From these, we calculated the parallel and perpendicular Reynolds stress and the particle fluxes in addition to the density and potential spectra and the cross phase between different quantities. In one fast radial scan of the probe, we can achieve radial profiles of all the aforementioned plasma quantities, which are extremely useful for studying plasma turbulence due to multiple instabilities. We have also cross checked the time averaged velocity profiles from the probe with laser induced fluorescence measurements of the mean plasma velocity for common plasma source parameters.
In our previous works, the multichannel three-wave polarimeter-interferometer system (POLARIS) on J-TEXT tokamak has been exploited to measure far-forward collective scattering (FCS) from electron density fluctuations [1]. Most recently, some substantial improvements have been completed. Firstly, the data processing is optimized, so that the low-frequency density fluctuations (<20kHz) could be obtained, which is covered by the intermediate frequency (IF) in previously. By use of the new data processing, low-frequency density fluctuations associated with tearing mode and zonal flow have been observed. Secondly, the effect of refraction of incident beam passing plasma on FCS measurements has been considered, so that the identification of propagation direction of density fluctuation is available for measuring channels at edge region, where the refraction angle is significant. And two different quasi-coherent density fluctuations propagating in ion and electron direction respectively have been observed in J-TEXT Ohmic plasma. gezhuang@ustc.edu.cn
[1] P. Shi et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11E110 (2016).
[2] Chen, J et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 11D303 (2014).
[3] Zhuang, G et al., Nuclear Fusion 51.9, 094020 (2011).
In order to optimize the scientific exploitation of JET during the upcoming deuterium-tritium experiments, a set of diagnostic systems is being enhanced. These upgrades focus mainly on the experimental and operational conditions expected during tritium campaigns. It should be stressed that measurements relevant for burning plasmas are specifically targeted. Previously non-existing capabilities, such as a current measurement system fully covering all poloidal field circuits, are described in detail. Instrument descriptions, performance prediction, testing and initial commissioning results of these systems are presented. This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.
Relative intensity calibration for the KSTAR beam emission spectroscopy (BES) system is successfully achieved with a fast visible CMOS camera. The KSTAR BES system with 2D array (4×16) avalanche photodiode (APD) detectors is allowed to move its spatial position of measurements and rotate its orientation to study plasma turbulence at various spatial positions. A proper relative intensity calibration, thus, requires beam-into-gas shots for all possible measurement positions, which becomes not only laborious but also shortening the lifetime of the beam dump, since the optical alignments are altered as the position is changed. The KSTAR BES system is equipped with a fast visible CMOS camera sharing the most of the same optics system with the APD detectors, resulting in that some of the CMOS pixels have the same optical axes with the APD detectors. Based on this fact, we propose a relative intensity calibration technique for all possible positions of the APD detectors based on the CMOS camera signals with only few beam-into-gas-shots. Our proposed technique is examined against experimental data and found to be applicable at least for the KSTAR BES system.
Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) is a commonly observed feature of magnetized toroidal plasmas in the presence of fast ions. It is generally agreed that this emission is caused by an inverted velocity distribution of confined fast ions originating from either neutral beam injection (NBI), fusion reactions, or acceleration by waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF). As a result, ICE can provide a non-perturbing measure of the state of confined alpha particles in a deuterium-tritium fusion device, such as ITER or DEMO. The ICE diagnostic on ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) is capable of detecting ICRF fields emitted by plasma. It consists of a pair of fast digitizer channels (125 MHz sampling rate), which are connected to a pair of B-dot probes inside the AUG torus, on the low field side (LFS). These probes are oriented such that the wave number and the mode polarization can be estimated. The frequency spectra reveal the radial location of ICE origin: the most common ICE originates from the LFS plasma region and is likely to be due to fast NBI ions. Signals consistent with fusion proton-driven emission are also observed, most commonly originating in the edge. However, under certain conditions, core ICE is also detected, with the fusion protons being the likely emission driver.
A high speed solid-state framing camera has been developed which can operate over a wide range of photon energies. This camera measures the change in the index of refraction of a semiconductor when photons with energies higher than the bandgap are incident upon it. This instrument uses an binary grating in front of the semiconductor to impose a corresponding grating in the semiconductor when photons higher than the band gap pass through the grating and are absorbed in the semiconductor, thereby producing a spatially dependent change in the index of refraction. A probe beam is then scattered off of this grating to measure the x-ray signal incident on the semiconductor. In this particular instrument the zero order scattered probe beam is attenuated and interfered with the higher orders to produce an interferometric image of the phase grating produced inside the semiconductor. This camera has been tested at 3.1 eV and 4.5 keV.
Synthetic diagnostics are aimed at simulating the responses of diagnostic systems under real experimental scenarios and are the key to drawing quantitative inferences from experimental data. The synthetic ECEI diagnostic is suitable to evaluate the improvement arising from the application of Field Curvature Adjustment (FCA) lenses in the design of the upgraded EAST ECEI system. Previously, a curved image plane is inevitable in the optics system with only convex lenses, which leads to stronger crosstalk between vertically adjacent channels and strongly limits the vertical channel resolution of the imaging system. The synthetic ECEI diagnostic results show that, with FCA lenses applied, the upgraded ECEI system has significant advantages to focus on high poloidal wavenumber structures with the aberrations from the spherical surfaces corrected and the various artifacts related to the field curvature suppressed. Also, the synthetic ECEI diagnostics is used for some quantitative calculations to partially decouple the effect of density fluctuations and temperature fluctuations for a given plasma. *Work supported by U.S. DOE Grant FG02-99ER54531
Single-shot, x-ray diffraction measurements to characterize phase transitions of dynamically compressed, high-Z materials at Mbar pressures require both sufficient photon energy and flux to record data with high fidelity. Besides x-ray lasers and synchrotrons, large-scale laser systems are used to generate brilliant x-ray sources above 10 keV by utilizing line radiation of mid-Z elements. However, the laser-to-x-ray energy conversion efficiency at these energies is low, and broadband thermal x-rays or hot electrons may irradiate the sample and detector, resulting in deleterious background. Polycapillary x-ray optics were employed to both increase the flux on sample as well as the separation between source and sample, resulting in a 20-fold flux increase on the sample versus a conventional pinhole aperture and a reduced background. This facilitates diffraction measurements up to 16 keV at the few-photon signal level. X-ray diffraction measurements were performed using either the Z-Beamlet or Z-Petawatt laser systems at Sandia National Laboratories. This work is supported by Sandia’s LDRD program. Sandia is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell Int. Inc. for the U.S. DOE NNSA, contract DE-NA0003525. SAND2018-0188A.
Measurements were performed on bending magnet beam line 9.3.1 at the Advanced Light Source (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA) over the energy range of approximately 2.5 to 8 keV. A dual goniometer endstation was used to measure crystal diffraction properties for the potassium acid phthalate (KAP). The measurement results are subsequently compared to a crystal reflectivity model consisting of theoretical rocking curves calculated using XOP software (a multi-lamellar model for the bent crystals) coupled with a calculation of x-ray beam divergence based on the geometry of the measurement apparatus. We find generally good agreement between the measurements and the model. This work was done by National Security Technologies, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25946, and by Mission Support and Test Services, LLC, under Contract No. DE-NA0003624, with the U.S. Department of Energy. DOE/NV/03624--0020.
High current modulations are widely required in tokamaks to generate specific magnetic field for plasma confinement, which are challenges for power electronics. For high current modulation, the stray inductance will cause high noise and surge voltage that may damage the power electronics. In addition, it is difficult to ensure both a fast response and a steady evolution. In this paper, a power supply based on insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) for high current modulation is described. The first stage capacitor bank of higher voltage ensures the current growth rate at the beginning of discharge and plays a role of wave filter later to reduce the noise. The second stage capacitor bank of lower voltage provides the main energy required in discharge. A microcontroller is used to modulate the current by feedback. This power supply can modulate the high current in a coil with low noise and fast response, which has been applied to the poloidal field control and ultrafast reciprocating probe system in SUNIST spherical tokamak.
A new tool has been developed to calculate the spectral, spatial and temporal response of multi-energy soft x-ray (ME-SXR) pinhole cameras for arbitrary plasma densities (ne,D), temperature (Te) and impurity densities (nZ). ME-SXR imaging provides a unique opportunity for obtaining important plasma properties (e.g. Te, nZ and Zeff) by measuring both continuum- and line emission in multiple energy ranges. This technique employs a pixelated x-ray detector in which the lower energy threshold for photon detection can be adjusted independently. The simulations performed assumes a tangential geometry and DIII-D like plasmas (e.g. ne,0~1.0x10^20 m^-3 and Te,0~5 keV) for various impurity (e.g. C, O, SiC, Ar, Ca, Mo and W) density profiles. The computed brightnesses range from few 10^2 to 10^3 counts/ms/pixel depending on the cutoff-energy thresholds, for a maximum count rate of 10 MHz per pixel. These estimates were obtained using FLYCHK x-ray emissivities for arbitrary plasma densities, temperatures between 0.2 and 10 keV, and photon energies between 1 and 50 keV. The XOP code was used to evaluate the x-ray attenuation in various materials (e.g. Be, Al, Si). The typical spatial resolution in the mid-plane is ~1 cm with a photon-energy resolution of 500 eV at a 500 Hz frame rate.
Plasma radiation is a crucial parameter for particle and energy transport study in fusion plasmas. Infrared imaging video bolometers (IRVB) can provide radiation profiles of fusion plasmas with noise stability, flat sensitivity and wide viewing range. Since the raw data of IRVB is the sum of local emissivity along the line of sight, tomographic reconstruction for removing line-integration effect is necessary to obtain 2-D cross-sectional radiation profiles. In this study, two-dimensional reconstruction algorithm for KSTAR IRVB was developed using the Phillips-Tikhonov (P-T) method. The reliability of the tomography code was validated by phantom reconstruction tests with various synthetic images. The reconstruction accuracy at divertor was distinctly improved with reduction of IRVB aperture size. In 2017 KSTAR campaign, krypton (Kr) seeding was performed in H-mode plasmas for mitigation or suppression of ELM. The IRVB tomography clearly shows the time evolution of 2-D radiation images after Kr injection. Total radiation power shows that a significant amount of plasma energy is dissipated by Kr radiation. At sufficiently high level of Kr, long-lasting ELM suppression until the end of plasma was also achieved.
IShTAR is a linear device dedicated to the investigation of the edge plasma - ICRF antenna interactions in tokamak edge-like conditions and serves as a platform for a diagnostic development for measuring the electric fields in the vicinity of ICRF antennas. We present here our progress in the development of an optical emission spectroscopy method for measuring the electric fields which concentrates on the changes of the He-I spectral line profiles introduced by the external electrical field, i.e. the Stark effect. To be able to fully control the operating parameters, at the first stage of the study the measurements are conducted on a DC-biased planar electrode installed in the centre of the plasma column in IShTAR’s helicon plasma source. At the second stage, the measurements are performed in the vicinity of IShTAR’s ICRF antenna.
The Divertor Langmuir Probes (DLP) on ITER will be used for machine control - helping to ascertain attached/detached plasma conditions – as well as for physics studies of the divertor plasma parameters. The severe environment of the divertor region, in particular the high photon radiation loads, presents a particular challenge to the probe design. The photon load averages several W/mm^2 on the plasma facing surfaces, and the total power can reach 20 W/mm^2 on the probe tip. The present design, evolved through several iterations, calls for a flush mounted probe assembly of tungsten and copper components brazed directly to the divertor target PFUs (plasma facing units) or “monoblocks”. Modeling indicates that this solution ensures reasonable temperatures for the passively cooled probes, often cooler than the divertor itself. Details of the present design and thermo-mechanical analysis will be presented, along with the expected system performance. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ITER Organization.
The infrared imaging video bolometer (IRVB) as a foil bolometry technique can be an alternative solution to the conventional resistive bolometer since it has a great advantage in its stability against electromagnetic noise compared with resistive bolometers using a Wheatstone Bridge. As for the data analysis of the IRVB, the plasma 2D radiation profile is not directly converted from the foil image of the IRVB due to the pixel number difference and the line averaged nature of the measurement. However, the forward weight matrix constructing the foil image from the radiation from the plasma can be easily derived through the geometric structure of the system, and the reconstruction process from the foil image to the plasma radiation profile is directly based on the forward weight matrix. So, the precise construction of the forward weight matrix should be an important work. Here we present the way of the forward weight matrix derivation through Monte-Carlo ray-tracing. Compared with the conventional forward weight matrix constructions with only chief rays, this method can provide the most rigorous and precise forward weight matrix since it uses all possible rays at each segment of the foil.
Xiaoyi Yang, Tianchao Xu, Yihang Chen, Tianbo Wang, Chijie Xiao, Min Xu, Yi Yu, Xiaogang Wang
The Laser-driven Ion-beam Trace Probe (LITP) is a new Bp diagnostic method, firstly proposed in 2014. The basic principle of the LITP method is as follow. Ions generated by laser-driven accelerator are injected into the tokamak, passing through the plasma and finally reached the detector on the vacuum wall. The Bp profile could be reconstructed based on the traces of ions. The ion beam has large energy and pitch angle spread so that the traces of ions with different energies cover a 2D area in the tokamak, and a tomography method is needed to reconstruct 2D Bp profiles. Here a new method based on the solutions of differential equation is proposed. Simulation results and error analysis show that the new method makes the LITP more adjustable and robust.
[1] Yang et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85(11), 11E429 (2014).
[2] Yang et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87(11), 11D610 (2016).
A series of experiments carried out with Ne seeding on JET with the ITER-like-Wall (ILW) suggests increased tungsten release and impurity accumulation as consequences of Ne seeding. For this reason, a detailed study of impurity behaviour together with its control during light gas injection is required. This paper reports on impurity behaviour in a set of hybrid discharges with Ne using the method, which relies on the measurements collected by VUV and soft X-ray diagnostics including the Princeton Instruments survey SPRED spectrometer and the SXR cameras system. Both diagnostics have some limitation. SXR analysis is performed when Te > 1.5-2 keV and it is not clear what species in the plasma are responsible for this radiation , while VUV due to vertical line of sight (LOS) loses most of tungsten radiation. Consequently, only a combination of measurements from these systems are able to provide comprehensive information about high-Z (e.g. tungsten (W)) and mid-Z (Ni, Mo) impurities for their further quantitative diagnosis. Moreover, thanks to the large number of the SXR LOS, determination of 2D radiation profile was also possible. Additionally, experimental results were compared with numerical modelling based on integrated simulations with COREDIV.
Determining fuel areal-density asymmetries is vital to assessing the performance for inertial confinement fusion implosions. The Charged Particle Spectrometry Suite (CPS’s) at the OMEGA facility has been used to infer the fuel areal-density asymmetries in cryogenic deuterium-tritium implosions by measuring the spectrum of knock-on deuterons in different directions. These knock-on deuterons are produced by elastic-scattering between primary DT neutrons and deuterium fuel. The CPS’s, which are located along different lines-of-sight, provide a complimentary measurement to the neutron-based measurements. In this work, we discuss the results from the current effort to use the existing CPS systems to diagnose fuel areal-density asymmetries in cryogenic DT implosions that are part of the 1-D Campaign. Preliminary data analysis reveals that measured fuel areal densities vary up to ~2x along different measurement lines-of-sight, which suggests significant asymmetries and perhaps systematic 3-D effects. This work was supported in part by US DOE (Grant No. DE-FG03- 03SF22691) and LLE (subcontract Grant No. 412160-001G).
The shape and position of Tokamak plasma play a crucial role in controlling the steady-state operation. Due to the high speed and good visual effect, a high-speed CCD is used for observing the configuration of plasma on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). According to the layout of EAST diagnostics window, the large field of view visible and infrared integrated endoscopy diagnostic system is introduced in this paper. The hardware structure and software design are designed to obtain plasma radiation image with the Phantom V710 high-speed camera. The camera is calibrated with the improved calibration method of Zhang Zhengyou's planar target placed in a vacuum chamber and spatial location is measured. According to the characteristics of plasma image position during the plasma discharge, the Snake algorithm based on the improved watershed is proposed in real-time plasma boundary detection. The boundary is fitted by the curve fitting algorithm based on the least square method and the plasma spatial position is obtained. The EAST experimental results show that the method presented in this paper can realize the expected goals and produce almost perfect effect which is of great significance for better plasma control.
We present multi-dimensional reconstruction of spatial profiles of plasma conditions by analyzing spectrally resolved x-ray image data obtained from OMEGA direct-drive ICF implosions. The targets were spherical plastic shells filled with varying D2-Ar relative and total gas pressures, similar to previous recent experiments [1]. Argon K-shell spectral features were observed primarily between the time of first-shock convergence and slightly before neutron bang time, using a time- and space-integrated spectrometer, streaked crystal spectrometer, and up to three gated multi-monochromatic x-ray imagers (MMI) fielded along quasi-orthogonal lines of sight. The spectrally resolved MMI data were processed to obtain spatially resolved spectra. A non-LTE Ar theoretical spectral database was computed via the Los Alamos Suite of Atomic Codes and used in conjunction with a spectroscopic-quality radiation-transport model. A multi-objective optimization technique [2] is used to extract 3D spatial profiles of plasma conditions (ne, Te, nD, and nAr) in the core. A synthetic-data case is also presented to verify the accuracy of the multi-objective optimization technique.
[1] S. C. Hsu et al., EPL 115, 65001 (2016).
[2] T. Nagayama et al., Phys. Plasmas 19, 082705 (2012). LA-UR-18-20222.
The upgrade to the National Spherical Torus eXperiment (NSTX-U) doubles the neutral beam power and enables plasmas to be sustained for up to 5 seconds. The graphite plasma facing components (PFCs) have been re-designed to handle greater heat and energy fluxes than were seen in NSTX using a castellated design. Some scenarios will produce divertor heat fluxes well above the 6-7 MW/m2 the PFCs are designed to withstand, and means of intra and inter-shot control are under investigation Select castellations in divertor regions will be instrumented with thermocouples designed to measure the shot-integrated energy deposited in each castellation. The thermocouples are located away ~25mm from the plasma facing surface to prevent stress concentrations in the castellations. The deposited energy is therefore determined by finite element analysis of the thermal behavior of the tile consistent with the thermal wave propagation in the castellations. We present experimental testing and validation of a castellated graphite target instrumented with thermocouples at various depths in the castellation. During testing, incident heat flux is provided by a programmed, electron beam system and surface temperatures are measured via infrared thermography directly viewing the target surface.
Characterization of plasma structure and density is critical for diagnosis and control of C-2W plasma equilibria. To this end, two compact, highly portable, turnkey second harmonic interferometers[1] are used to make measurements with greater flexibility than available from other diagnostics, providing important information sooner than what would be possible from more complicated systems and in areas otherwise inaccessible. The systems are based on a fiber-coupled 1064nm Nd:YAG laser, and provide a sensitivity of a few 1019 m-2 with a time resolution of a few microseconds. System upgrades were made to allow for beam paths in excess of five meters. Data from two system configurations will be presented, showing plasma translation and merged equilibria.
[1] F. Brandi, et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum., 80, 113501 (2009)
A graphite element, called a scraper [1], will be installed in 2018 on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in the throat of the divertor (at two out of ten potential toroidal locations). We have designed, built, and calibrated a new infrared/visible imaging endoscope system to enable detailed observations of the plasma interactions and heat loads at one of the scrapers, and the neighboring divertor surfaces. The new endoscope uses a shuttered, pinhole-protected, pair of 90° off-axis 218 mm focal length aluminum parabolic mirrors in vacuum, and two flat turning metal mirrors, to send light to a sapphire window 1.4 meters away, beyond which we have co-located telephoto lens-based mid-infrared and visible cameras. The camera field of view covers the entire 650 mm length of the scraper, and includes locations monitored by thermocouples and Langmuir probes embedded in some of the scraper tiles. Detailed design, assembly tests, installation, and comparison of predicted (ZEMAX) and actual optical test performance will be discussed.
[1] A. Lumsdaine, et al., IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Volume: 44, Issue: 9, pg. 1738-1744, Sept. 2016 )
Two filtered fast-imaging instruments, with radial and axial views, respectively, were used on the C-2U device to visualize line emission from impurities and hydrogenic neutrals. Due to the accelerated pace of C-2U operations, in-vessel access was not available; as a result, novel calibration techniques needed to be developed. Spatial calibration involved optimizing parameters in a generic camera model: ex-situ using a checkerboard target and in-situ using the vacuum vessel port geometry. Photometric calibration was performed ex-situ in three stages. First, the camera relative response function was mapped using an algorithm developed for high dynamic-range imaging. Second, the non-uniformity of the optical system was measured using a large LCD monitor with known angular emission pattern. Finally, the absolute photon efficiency of each interference filter was determined using a calibrated uniform radiance source. Drift of the photometric calibration was tracked in-situ by measuring line emission from neutral beams fired into a gas target. One application using calibrated camera data was tomographic reconstruction of emissivity from O 4+ . This emissivity provided a sanity check with the excluded-flux radius inferred from wall-mounted magnetic sensors.
The Thin foil Proton Recoil spectrometer (TPR) concept has previously been used at JET as a DT fusion neutron diagnostic. It is also one of the techniques suggested for use at ITER as part of the high resolution neutron spectrometer system. The main purpose of the neutron spectrometers at ITER is to determine the fuel ion density ratio in DT plasmas. The TPR principle is based on the detection of recoil protons produced due to (n,p) elastic neutron scattering in a thin CH foil. Some of the produced protons will interact in a dedicated detector. For the suggested high resolution neutron spectrometer system at ITER, the TPR proton detector is based on the dE-E principle. In this study, the dE-E capability of a silicon detector system has been experimentally investigated using mono-energetic proton beams. The measurement was conducted at the Uppsala University TANDEM accelerator using proton beam energies of 3 – 8 MeV for proof of concept. The experimentally obtained results together with Monte-Carlo background simulations are used to estimate the expected signal-to-background ratio for a TPR system during DT operations in ITER.
Lasers incident on solid targets produce B-fields around the laser spot due to orthogonal ne and Te gradients that develop near the target surface[1]. Simulations show that these fields are produced in hohlraum experiments at the NIF[2], and that the presence of B-fields can affect particle and energy transport. Little work exists comparing simulated fields predicted by MHD models to data at scales relevant for NIF hohlraum experiments (~10 ns, ~few mm)[3]. In particular, the relative contributions of frozen-in and Nernst advection of the field away from the hohlraum wall is not well understood. We have developed a new target platform for measuring B-field topology in a NIF-relevant geometry. Using NIF outer cones, a 2.5 mm long, 5.4 mm diameter Au ring is illuminated with a similar beam pattern to that of a ring of beams in a hohlraum. This provides a clear line of sight for probing through the ring by protons from an imploded D3He-filled capsule 2.5 cm below the ring. Proton deflection is recorded on CR39, allowing estimates of E- and B-field strength and topology in the target and contributions from different advection mechanisms. This work performed under auspices of US DOE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 with LDRD support.
[1] Stamper PRL
[2] Farmer PoP
[3] Li Science
Local measurements of electrostatic and magnetic turbulence (~E and ~B) in fusion grade plasmas are a critical missing component in advancing our understanding of turbulent transport. A novel diagnostic for measuring these fluctuations is being developed. It employs high-speed measurements of the spectral linewidth of the Motional Stark Effect split neutral beam emission, where the amount of splitting is proportional to local magnetic and electric fields at the emission site. A spatial heterodyne spectroscopy (SHS) technique with high spectral resolution (~0.025 nm), high throughput (~0.02 cm^2 sr), and high speed (f ~ 250 kHz) is used as the MSE spectrum analyzer. A prototype SHS has been deployed to D3D for initial testing in the tokamak environment. A major contributor to loss of fringe contrast and thus SNR is line broadening arising from employing a large etendue collection lens. This is solved by making the collection optic conjugate with the image field containing the interference fringes via a small relay lens system and then tilting the gratings in the SHS. The change in effective groove density with tilt angle imposes a spatial shift in wavelength equal and opposite to that produced by the collection optic. Work supported by US DOE grant DE-FG02-89ER53296.
A fundamental component of any magnetically confined fusion experiment is a firm understanding of the magnetic field. The increased complexity of the C-2W machine warrants an equally enhanced diagnostic capability. C-2W is outfitted with over 700 magnetic field probes of various types. They are both internal and external to the vacuum vessel. Inside, a linear array of innovative in-vacuum annular flux loop / B-dot combination probes provide information about plasma shape, size, pressure, energy, temperature, and trapped flux when coupled with establish theoretical interpretations. A linear array of B-dot probes complement the azimuthally averaged measurements. A Mirnov array of 64 3D probes, with both low and high frequency resolution, detail plasma motion and MHD modal content via singular value decomposition analysis. Internal Rogowski probes measure axial currents flowing in the plasma jet. Outside, every feed-thru for an internal probe has an external axial field probe. There are many external loops that measure the plasma formation dynamics and the total external magnetic flux. The external measurements are primarily used to characterize eddy currents in the vessel during a plasma shot. Details of these probes and the data derived from their signals will be presented.
The magnetic field on a closed surface can be uniquely decomposed into contributions from currents internal and external to the surface [A.H. Boozer, Nucl. Fusion 55, 025001 (2015)]. In the context of a magnetic fusion device, this general principle implies that given a sufficient set of magnetic diagnostics just outside the plasma surface, the plasma’s contribution to the magnetic field can be distinguished from that of external currents – without the need for a specific model of either the plasma or the external currents. For example, this principle enables a direct measurement of the field of a growing plasma instability, without the need for a model of the currents that it induces in the resistive vessel wall. Similarly, it allows a direct measurement of the stable plasma response to an external magnetic perturbation, separate from the field of the external coils that impose the perturbation. We will discuss the requirements on magnetic diagnostics for such measurements. Applications of the technique to measurements in the DIII-D tokamak will be shown, including the case of a rotating tearing mode as it becomes locked to the wall.
*Work supported by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698.
"TAE’s advanced, beam-driven field-reversed configuration device has a large fast-ion population, allowing for fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) studies. Development of a FIDA spectrometer for the new C-2W device is underway. Previous measurements [1] were combined with C-2W geometry to inform the design. Measured signal levels led to the purchase of a Phantom Miro 110 high-speed camera that will be paired with Kaiser’s Holospec f/1.8 spectrograph. The spectrograph utilizes a custom transmission grating centered at 656.0 nm. Simulations were used to choose available ports with expectedly large signals. Eight neutral beams and 354 ports were considered. Experimentally-obtained 1D plasma profiles from C-2U were mapped onto Q2D [2] simulation flux surfaces. For each point on the vessel wall, many lines-of-sight (LOS) are created to view the entirety of each neutral beam path. FIDA spectra are simulated for each LOS using FIDASIM [3]. Integrating over wavelength and beam-space allows individual ports to be chosen for their large prospective signals.
1. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11E520 (2016)
2. Physics of Plasmas 24, 092518 (2017)
3. http://d3denergetic.github.io/FIDASIM/index.html"
X-ray radiography is a powerful tool for diagnosing high energy density states. In particular, face-on X-ray radiography is used in material strength experiments on the NIF. In these experiments, Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) growth is monitored in samples with pre-formed ripples driven to high pressure with the departure from classical RT growth attributed to material strength. In this experiment, the ability to resolve the opacity contrast between peaks and valleys of the RT growth is critical for accurate determination of the growth factor. Here we study the effect of polychromaticity of the backlighter and a large spatial extent of the source due to high-energy x-ray transmission. The performance of these measurements can in part be characterized by the modulation transfer function (MTF), which is estimated using the knife-edge technique. We present results from recent experiments using the NIF.
*This work was performed under the auspices of the Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, (LLNS) under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.
A prototype of an infrared imaging bolometer (IRVB) was successfully deployed and tested on the Alcator C-Mod tokamk during the end of the FY16 campaign. The IRVB method interprets the power radiated from the plasma by measuring the temperature rise of a thin, 2.5 micron Pt absorber that is exposed, through a pinhole aperture, to the full-spectrum of plasma photon emission. The IRVB was installed on C-Mod with a view of the poloidal cross-section of the core plasma. The temperature of the absorber was measured using a Cedip Titanium 550M camera with spectral response from 3.6-5.1 microns and framing rates up to 1 kHz for an image size of 256 x 64 pixels. Measurements taken over two run days (~50 discharges) included Ohmic and ICRF-heated H-mode and I-mode plasmas. Raw signal-to-noise ratios of ~100 were achieved. Initial quantitative comparisons of total radiated power and on-axis emissivity from IRVB are compared to results from resistive bolometers and AXUV-diodes. This IRVB is shown to be immune to electromagnetic interference from ICRF, which strongly impacts resistive bolometers, but sensitive to mechanical oscillations between the camera and absorber. Results of the benchtop calibration are summarized, showing noise equivalent power and frequency response.
Fielding the 3rd Generation Gas Cherenkov Detector (GCD3) onto the National Ignition Facility (NIF) encompassed commissioning of the WellDIM3.9m Insertion Manipulator at Port 64-275 of the NIF Target Chamber. Phase II enhancements include the integration of the Sydor/Kentech/Photek Pulse-Dilation Photomultiplier Tube (PD-PMT) onto the existing detector. Given the 10x measurement bandwidth improvement that the PD-PMT will provide, the next logical enhancement (Phase III) is to increase the detector’s sensitivity, i.e., position the detector closer to the Target Chamber Center. Concept options include: a.) Deploying the existing GCD3/PD-PMT Detector on the Target and Diagnostic Manipulator (TANDM), b.) Develop an optimized multi-cell Gas Cherenkov Detector (“Super-GCD”) also TANDM-based, or c.) Develop an integral Super GCD/Neutron Imaging System diagnostic for TANDM. This poster/paper highlights the engineering design challenges, methodologies, and possible solutions to achieving this goal. LA-UR-18-20260
The C-2W experiment at TAE Technologies aims at sustaining an advanced beam-driven field reversed configuration (FRC) plasma. However, FRC lifetime is limited by particle confinement, among other factors. Injecting a supersonic compact toroid (CT) through the separatrix radius (Rs) is a means of refueling the FRC’s core with deuterium. For long-lived plasmas there is a need for multiple, non-disruptive, refueling events with uniform CTs. To develop a consistent and repetitive injection system a dedicated test bed exists to study formation dynamics, as well as translation and merging of CTs. The test bed is outfitted with a diagnostic suite including b-dot probes, a triple probe, an interferometer, rogowskis and a collimated fiber optic array to measure plasma parameters such as electron density (ne), electron temperature (Te) and magnetic fields, in addition to macroscopic attributes such as CT velocity, volume and particle count. Neutral gas build-up has been mitigated, in part, by the adoption of a plasma source for pre-ionization which assists the compact toroid injector (CTI) breakdown and increases the ionization fraction. Particulars of pulse to pulse repeatability, which is affected by the accumulation of neutral gas, lingering plasma and pulsed power supply variation.
Interferometry as one of the most common core fusion diagnostics has traditionally suffered from incomplete vibration compensation. Dispersion interferometry promises a more complete compensation of vibrations. For this reason it is being employed in an increasing number of experiments. However, thus far none of them have shown reliable real-time low-latency processing of dispersion interferometry data. Nonetheless this is a necessity for most machines when trying to do density feedback control, most notably in long discharges like the ones planned at the W7-X stellarator and ITER. In this paper we report the development of a new phase extraction method specifically developed for real-time evaluation using FPGAs. It has been shown to operate reliably during the OP1.2a operation phase at W7-X and is now routinely being used by the W7-X density feedback system up to very high densities above 1.4e20 1/m² without 2π-wraps. During the development of the method new insights into the signal composition of a dispersion interferometer have been gained leading to a new signal calibration relevant to other phase evaluation methods.
As magnetically confined plasmas progress towards ignition and very long pulse experiments, the physics of the pedestal and diverter regions has become increasingly important. In particular, measurements of the ions in the scrape-off layer are needed. The energy spectra of the ions determines the rates of sputtering and erosion of the plasma facing surfaces. The ion spectra in the edge are not easily determined spectroscopically and must be measured in situ since the ions are confined by the strong magnetic fields of the tokamak. Conventional energy analyzers are too large and expensive to install in multiple locations around the torus. Thus, we are developing in situ probes to make direct, spatially resolved measurements of the ion energy spectra in the edge of tokamak plasmas that are easily replaced and require minimal resources. The probes are compact, low cost, and small enough to be placed inside of specially prepared wall tiles – essentially creating a “smart” plasma facing surface in a tokamak. Details of the prototype micro ion spectrometer and initial tests will be presented. Work supported by US DOE
A motional Stark effect (MSE) imaging diagnostic was benchmarked against existing conventional MSE polarimeters on DIII-D and delivered new capabilities for measuring the magnetic pitch angle from 2 neutral beams and on the low field side of DIII-D. For 30 years conventional photoelastic modulator polarimeters have been used for constraining the toroidal current profile in fusion devices, however these systems require individual narrowband filters to track the Doppler shift of each channel and are therefore limited to 10s of channels. A more recently developed MSE technique utilises birefringent crystals to establish a sinusoidal spectral filter of period comparable to the pi-sigma splitting to allow imaging of the entire neutral beam emission without requiring to track the Doppler shift. While close agreement between the conventional and imaging systems is obtained for shots with toroidal magnetic field and plasma current in the normal direction, the consistency is lost for shots with either reversed field or current. An analysis of the magnetic axis position independently measured with the conventional MSE, imaging MSE, ECE and magnetics is presented to elucidate differences between the MSE measurements. *Work supported by U.S. DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698 and DE-AC52-07NA27344
Streak Cameras are an essential diagnostic tool used in shock physics and high energy density physics experiments. Such experiments require well calibrated temporally resolving diagnostics for studying events that occur on the nanosecond to microsecond time scales. The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) have built a 42-channel solid state streak camera (SSSC) prototype as a proof of concept for use as a streak camera replacement. This work is part of an ongoing project to develop the technology to a level competitive with analog streak cameras. The device concept, results from electronic testing and recent improvements to increase the device’s dynamic range will be discussed in this poster. DOE/NV/03624--0023
General Fusion is assembling an upgraded Thomson scattering system in preparation for measurements on the new PI3 plasma injector. Major changes include a shift of laser wavelength from 532 nm to 1064 nm and switching from a spectrometer and photomultiplier detector setup to polychromator and avalanche photodiode (APD) detector setup. A novel, inexpensive, tunable polychromator design will be tested. A comparison will be made between a variety of custom and off the shelf APD modules. Previously, a 532 nm based system was used with five chords on the smaller SPECTOR machine, measuring temperature and density of plasmas ranging over 50-400 eV and 0.3-1x1020 m-3. After initial testing, the new system will be expanded to eight modular chords.
A compact neutron spectrometer, based on a CH foil for production of recoil protons and CR-39 detection, is being developed for measurements of DD-neutron spectra at Z. To accurately measure the DD ion temperature (Tion) of ~2 keV, the spectrometer must have an energy resolution (FWHM) of ~120 keV. Spectral broadening is primarily dominated by the finite thickness of the converter foil and track-diameter variations in the CR-39. To infer an areal density (ρR) background levels from neutron induced tracks need to be sufficiently low to measure the down scattered DD neutrons. This is done through a combination of shielding and the Coincidence Counting Technique (CCT) [1]. The spectrum itself is inferred from the track diameter distribution measured on the CR-39 detector. To this end, a novel analysis technique has been developed for determining the energy-diameter relationship required to recover the spectrum. Initial data from a crude prototype spectrometer has been collected from a few MagLIF shots at the Z facility. This work is supported by Sandia under DOE contract DE-NA0003525.
1) D. T. Casey et al. RSI 82, 073502 (2011)
Passive spectroscopic measurements of Zeeman splitting has been reliably used to measure magnetic fields in plasmas for decades. However, a requirement is that the field must be high enough to be resolved over Doppler and instrument broadening (typically >1 T). A synthetic diagnostic capable of measuring low magnetic fields (<5 mT) with high sensitivity (+/- 0.5 mT) is currently under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The diagnostic relies on Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy (DFSS), an active, laser-based technique that greatly reduces Doppler and instrument broadening. To date, diagnostic has been successfully employed to measure the magnetic field in a magnetized (55-90 mT), low-temperature (5-20 eV), low-density (5e16-3e18 m^-3), hydrogen and helium plasma in the 5-200 mTorr pressure range using a low power (25 mW) diode laser. These measurements are presented and shown to be accurate within 0.5 mT. Crossover resonances (CR’s) (an artifact of the diagnostic) are also observed within the measured spectra. Parametric response of the CR’s to the magnetic field and gas temperature will be presented. A quantitative model, developed from these measurements, to accurately predict the CR’s behavior will also be given.
The detection of x-rays in the 100s of keV to MeV range for picosecond laser-matter interactions provides understanding of the laser to relativistic electron coupling, which is critical for applications such as Compton radiography, positron-electron pair production, and TNSA proton generation. Spectroscopy in the range of 0.1-2 MeV is difficult due to the high photon flux for single counting devices; while at such energies, the photons have low interaction cross sections with crystals and Cherenkov detectors. Here, we describe a novel geometry of a step filter to measure high energy bremsstrahlung emission for positron-electron pair production experiments. The design allows for independent determination of a local background noise that reduces the systematic error in the reconstructed spectra. Bremsstrahlung emission was measured for various laser and target conditions and correlated to pair production yields. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and funded by the LLNL LDRD program under tracking code 17-ERD-010.
The instrument response function of neutron time-of-flight (nToF) systems is a major contributor to both systematic and statistical uncertainties of derived quantities of interest. In particular, the first and second moments of these distributions are associated with arrival time, t0, and ion temperature Tion. Response times of Cerenkov radiators recently deployed at NIF are set by neutron transit times across the detector, rather than long response-time tails characteristic of scintillation detectors. We present the results of uncertainty analysis showing the significant reduction of uncertainty in determining these quantities using the Cerenkov detector system recently deployed at NIF. The increased sensitivity to gamma radiation requires additional consideration of the effect of this background to the uncertainties in both t0 and Tion. Leveraging the well-understood nature of the Cerenkov process, high fidelity Monte Carlo simulations are combined with analysis techniques to evaluate the effect of background on measured NIF spectra. *Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Electron-lattice coupling strength governs the energy transfer between electrons and lattices and is important for understanding the material behavior under thermal non-equilibrium conditions. Here we employed time-resolved electron diffraction at MeV energies to directly study the electron-lattice relaxation in 40-nm-thick polycrystalline copper excited by femtosecond optical lasers. The temporal evolution of lattice temperature over a range of excitation fluences were obtained from the measurements of Debye-Waller decay of multiple diffraction peaks. The lattice temperature results were compared to two-temperature model simulations to derive the electron-lattice coupling strength in copper. This work was supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Science under FWP #100182.
In order to effectively carry out the research of Plasma turbulence,a multichannel correlation reflectometry has been developed on EAST tokamak , which working in the frequency range of (20GHz-60GHz) and with the polarization of ordinary mode. The system can probe eight different radial locations simultaneously by launching eight fixed frequencies (20.4GHz,24.8GHz,33GHz,40GHz 42.5GHz,48GHz,52.6GHz, 57.2GHz) and also two different poloidal position simultaneously through two poloidal separated receive antenna. The set up enables the measurement of density fluctuation cover the area from pedestal to core plasma in the routine plasma operation on EAST. In this article, the hardware design and the laboratory test and also the preliminary experimental results on the EAST will be presented .
Reliable electric field measurements in a plasma are challenging, especially when fine resolution of spatial structure is critical. A capacitive probe [Mingsheng, Tan, et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum 88, 023502 (2017)] is one of a few diagnostics that are directly sensitive to the plasma potential. In such a probe, a boron nitride ceramic (BN) covers an electrode and a capacitor is formed between the electrode and the plasma with the BN serving as a dielectric material. When the electron temperature is above 18 eV, the floating potential of the BN becomes the same as the plasma potential due to increased secondary electron emission. Therefore, the spatial structure of the electric field can be measured by using an array of capacitive electrodes. We develop a multi-channel capacitive probe for fine radial electric field measurements. In order to assure stable operation of an electrode with small collecting surface area over a wide frequency range, a high input impedance amplifier with driven guard is employed. Preliminary data are presented showing that the multi-channel capacitive probe can resolve both equilibrium, few hundreds of Hz, and fluctuating, up to ~500 kHz, radial electric fields with the spatial resolution of 7 mm.
The Orion high-resolution X-ray (OHREX) focusing, imaging spherically bent crystal spectrometer, operated with both image plates and CCD cameras, has been providing time-averaged plasma diagnostics through high-resolution spectroscopy with good signal-to-noise at the Orion Laser facility. For the next step towards time-resolved plasma diagnostics to be achieved by using the OHREX in conjunction with a streak camera, even higher signal rates are desirable. Using the OHREX's sister instrument, EBHiX, at the LLNL electron beam ion trap EBIT-I, we therefore compare the efficiency of a high-quality Ge (111) crystal ($2d=6.532$\,\AA{}) with that of a higher-reflectivity, but lower-resolution HAPG crystal ($2d=6.708$\,\AA{}) in the energy range 2408 to 2452 eV. We find that the HAPG provides overall more signal across the entire image, but, because of the much better focusing properties of the Ge crystal, the latter provides more signal within the central 100 um of the spatial profile in cross-dispersion direction and is thus more suitable for the narrow entrance window of the Livermore-built streak camera. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LLNL nunder Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.
As for studying the behavior of the turbulence affecting transport, the multi-scale turbulence interaction is receiving much attention at present. For this aim, higher spatial and temporal resolution diagnostics have been developed and applied in several devices [1]. In LHD, such the precise spatio-temporal behavior of turbulence flow velocity and intensity has been measured by the multi-channel microwave frequency comb Doppler reflectometer system [2, 3]. Recently, we succeeded in increasing the radial observation points of this Doppler reflectometer system up from 8 to 20 (or especially up to 60). The high sampling rate of 40 GS/s is utilized for the digital signal processing. The detail of the system and some topical results will be presented and the application technique will be discussed.
[1] T. Tokuzawa, Nuclear Fusion 57 (2017) 025001.
[2] T. Tokuzawa et al., Plasma Fusion Res. 9 (2014) 1402149.
[3] T. Tokuzawa et al., Phys. of Plasmas 21 (2014) 055904.
The present study was supported in part by KAKENHI (Nos. 17K18773, 17H01368, 15H02335, and 15H02336), by a budgetary Grant-in-Aid from the NIFS LHD project under the auspices of the NIFS Collaboration Research Program, and by Collaborative Research Program of RIAM of Kyushu University.
Many tokamaks now use visible light cameras to observe plasma-wall interactions and integrated line emission. The DIII-D Coherence Imaging Spectroscopy diagnostic cameras image interferograms that encode line integrated flow. By modeling the 2D camera image pixels as line-of-sight integrals through an axisymmetric discrete grid it is possible to do tomographic analysis to determine the local plasma line emissivity and parallel flow. We present methods to solve the inverse problem posed by these tangential viewing cameras. The inversion begins with calculation of the sparse response matrix that encompasses all the geometry and diagnostic information and reduces the process of image formation to a sparse matrix-vector multiply. This work includes techniques of determining the detailed geometry of the camera views and methods for handling physical quantities that vary spatially. Additionally, the size of the response matrix has driven the development of capability to distribute the coarse parallel calculation across a heterogeneous cluster of computers on the Energy Sciences Network. Iterative techniques are then used to solve the sparse matrix-vector linear system.Work performed by LLNL under auspices of US DOE, Contract No. DE- AC52-07NA27344 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
The analysis approach often called “integrated data analysis” (IDA) provides a means to exploit all information present in multiple streams of raw data to produce the best estimate of a plasma parameter. This contrasts with the typical approach in which information (data) from a single diagnostic is used to measure a given parameter, e.g., visible bremsstrahlung→Zeff or Thomson scattering (TS)→Te. Data from a given diagnostic usually contains information on many parameters. For example, a TS diagnostic is sensitive to bremsstrahlung and line emission in addition to Te. This “background” light is typically subtracted off, but can be used to improve knowledge of Zeff. IDA encourages explicit awareness of such information and provides the quantitative framework to exploit it. As an example, IDA enabled measurement of Zeff on MST, as no single diagnostic provided a robust measurement. As we enter the burning plasma era, application of IDA may be critical to measurement of certain parameters, as diagnostic access in the harsh fusion environment will be extremely limited. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences program under Award Numbers DE-SC0015474 and DE-FC02-05ER54814.
The Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) concept has recently demonstrated Gbar pressures, confinement of charged fusion products, and substantial fusion yield. We have developed a new analysis methodology that allows for the self-consistent integration of multiple diagnostics including nuclear, x-ray imaging, and x-ray power measurements to determine important stagnation parameters. The analysis uses a simplified model of the hotspot in conjunction with a Bayesian inference network to determine the most probable configuration that describes the experimental observations. The analysis is also used to reveal correlations in the data and model parameters as well as to assess the value of the diagnostics. We present the details of the model used as well as the results of validation tests. We demonstrate the method on experimental data and show how new diagnostics can be added or existing ones optimized to reduce uncertainties. *Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.
To achieve a symmetric implosion with indirect drive, it is crucial to understand the dynamic behavior of laser transport in the hohlraum. This is particularly important in targets with lower initial gas-fill density since the region of the hohlraum wall irradiated by the outer cone beams bulges into the gas and can impair the propagation of the inner cone beams. Similarly, material ablated off the capsule surface can absorb the inner cone laser power before it reaches the hohlraum wall where it is converted to x-ray drive. We have developed a thin-walled hohlraum target which we use in a series of experiments to characterize laser beam propagation and hohlraum wall motion. We observe the bulge of the hohlraum wall with an x-ray framing camera positioned on the hohlraum axis. Time dependent power delivery to the equator is observed as x-ray emission through a thin-wall patch on the hohlraum. The self-emission x-ray image of the imploded core shows the cumulative effect of the asymmetric drive up to the maximum x-ray emission time. By changing the hohlraum fill density, the drive pulse shape (strength of the picket) and the capsule size, we study how those conditions affect the power delivery and asymmetry of the implosion.
The DIII-D diagnostic set combines expansions of established systems with implementations of new technologies to improve measurement and associated model validation from the boundary to the core plasma. A recent addition of translatable in-vacuum mirrors controllably alters a laser path within the Thomson Scattering system to adapt to the divertor geometry of particular experiments. The resulting electron density and temperature measurements provide information concerning detachment in the divertor. A new system is the Imaging Neutral Particle Analyzer (INPA), which measures radial profiles of core energetic ion density over narrowly defined regions of velocity space to provide information concerning beam ion transport. Future developments include high-Z spectroscopy suited to transport of tungsten and molybdenum as injected following the commissioning of a Laser Blow Off system. Measurements of the neutral density profile will necessarily become a focus as different divertor geometries are investigated. As four (of eight) neutral beams become capable of off-axis injection, new measurement possibilities will be explored, including flow velocity and ion temperature determination with divertor charge exchange. This work is supported in part by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698.
Diagnostic hole used in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion cannot be too large to cause severe radiation loss and affect the radiation uniformity in the hohlraum, or too small in case the plasma filling would block diagnostic holes and affect the diagnosis. An elongated hole is chosen as an extreme case to study the plasma movement in diagnostic hole in order to provide reference for the diagnostic hole design. The elongated diagnostic hole on the gold hohlraum wall was 150 μm in diameter and 100 μm deep. The peak radiation temperature of hohlraum was about 180 eV. The hydrodynamic processes in the elongated hole was observed by an X-ray framing camera. Laser-irradiated Ti disk was used to generate 2-5 keV narrow energy X-ray as the intense backlighter source. The plasma areal density distribution and evolution in the elongated hole was quantitatively measured and can be used to assess the effect of hydrodynamic processes on the diagnosis from the diagnostic hole.
Many tokamak devices utilize high-power neutral beams for various beam-based active spectroscopic diagnostics such as motional Stark effect (MSE). For higher heating performance, it is customary for the neutral beam injection (NBI) to be made with a multiple number of ion sources, which often times conflicts the environment that the active spectroscopic systems desire. This is mainly because the atomic and molecular emissions taking place from the interactions with multiple beams, or from different flux surfaces, are collected through the front optics at the same time, resulting in systematic errors in the measured quantities. In this work, the effect of the multiple ion source injections on the pitch angle measurements by the MSE diagnostic is quantitatively studied based on both numerical modeling and measurements made from the plasma discharges for the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research. The sensitivity of the pitch angle against various combinations of the acceleration voltages of the ion sources is evaluated, yielding the optimum configuration of the beam injection that can maximize the heating efficiency with an acceptable level of the systematic offset in the MSE measurements. This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT in Korea.
Material clusters of different sizes are known to exist in high-temperature plasmas due to plasma-wall interactions. The facts that these clusters, ranging from sub-microns to above mm in size, can move from one location to another quickly, and that there are a lot of them, make high-speed imaging and tracking one of the best, effective, and sometimes only diagnostic. A machine learning technique based on neural networks is developed to analyze high-speed videos of high-temperature micro-clusters generated from exploding wires. The neural network utilizes a locally competitive algorithm to generate and optimize a set of dictionaries containing kernels, or bases, for image analysis. Our primary goal is to use this method for feature recognition and prediction of the microparticle motion. Results from machine-generated kernels are compared with physically-motivated kernels, where hand-picked kernels are used in conjunction with machine-generated ones. Our work indicates that machine-learning and supervised machine learning techniques are promising approaches to process large sets of images for high-temperature plasmas and other scientific experiments. Machine learning techniques will be useful to aid the understanding of plasma-wall interaction.
The proposed work is devoted to design, construction and testing advanced imaging diagnostics that will be able to perform the global SXR imaging ultimately aimed at both high Z and light impurities tracking. The detection structure is based on triple GEM amplification structure followed by the pixel readout electrode. The efficiency of detecting unit was adjusted for the radiation region of tungsten in high-temperature plasma. It provides 2D imaging with high time resolution (sub millisecond), high sensitivity and signal to noise ratio, good energy discrimination, with ability to address and programme single pixels.This work will present the detector characteristics and preliminary laboratory results obtained for the developed system. The operational characteristics and conditions of the detector were designed to work in the X-Ray range of 2–17 keV. Stream-handling data acquisition mode was developed for the detecting system with timing down to the ADC sampling frequency rate (~13 ns). The spatial resolution and imaging properties of this detector were studied for conditions of high counting rates and high gain. Imaging capabilities of GEM detectors were tested with different patterned anode planes (i.e. different readouts) to verify the detector high rate capability.
Understanding of the influence of the edge toroidal rotation on the L-H transition power threshold is important for improving the plasma performance of future fusion devices. An edge toroidal charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (eCXRS) diagnostic has been deployed recently on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), providing the edge toroidal rotation. Experimental investigations on EAST show that the L-H transition power threshold depends approximately on the edge toroidal rotation by eCXRS. Generally, the threshold power increases with the increasing edge toroidal rotation for both normal Bt and reversal Bt plasmas. However, this result is not applicable in all cases.A new criterion has been founded that the L-H transition power threshold depends strongly on the edge toroidal rotation shear. L-mode shots and L-H transition shots also have obviously different edge rotation shear in the figure 2. The observed reduction of power threshold with decreasing rotation shear could be explained by the change of edge radial electric field structure, induced by rotation shape. This reduced power threshold at lower toroidal rotation and lower rotation shear could benefit to inherently low-rotation plasma such as ITER and CFETR.
The Gamma Ray Imager (GRI) is a novel diagnostic providing 2D tangential imaging of bremsstrahlung radiation from runaway electrons (RE) in the DIII-D tokamak. GRI is a lead pin-hole camera utilizing a 2D array of Bismuth Germanate (BGO) detectors. It is located at the DIII-D midplane and possesses up to 123 tangential sight-lines spanning the entire plasma poloidal cross-section. BGO detectors are sensitive to gamma-rays with energies 1−30 MeV, have sensitivity of 14 mV/MeV, energy resolution of 10%, and are able to distinguish pulses for pulse height analysis with 100 μs time resolution. This allows investigation of RE spatial and energy distribution evolution, which is critical to evaluating the importance of various RE dissipation mechanisms.A recent upgrade saw the number of instrumented GRI channels doubled (56) to image the entire plasma region, and additional lead shielding installed to reduce the flux of uncollimated gammas. Other detectors (BGO crystal coupled with Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC) and LYSO coupled with MPPC) were also investigated to improve the time resolution to 5 μs and 50 ns respectively. Measurements of bremsstrahlung radiation and comparison to synthetic diagnostics will be discussed.This work was supported by the US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698
The Thomson scattering (TS) diagnostic on the Proto-MPEX at ORNL has been upgraded to simultaneously measure electron temperature (Te) and density (ne) at two axial locations. After the first pass through the vacuum vessel, the existing laser beamline is re-collimated in atmosphere and rerouted into the vacuum vessel for the second pass. The upgrade will help diagnose axial Te and ne gradients between the 'central chamber' and the target region, which are located 1m and 2.5m downstream from the helicon RF source. TS measurements have given Te≈4-15eV and ne≈1-4e19/m^3 at the central chamber, and Te≈1-2eV and ne≈1-3e19/m^3 at the target. The upgrade also increases the number of sampling points at the target from one fiber to 5 fibers, measuring 3cm radially across the plasma column, and 25 fibers in the central chamber radially spanning 8cm. The intensified CCD camera is double triggered for each laser pulse: 1) to measure the TS and laser stray light, and 2) to measure the plasma background light, which contains nuisance emission lines and bremsstrahlung. Subtracting the background light from the TS photons improves the temperature and density measurements. Details of the diagnostic setup, axial and radial measurements, and areas for further optimization will be discussed.
A Heavy Ion Beam Probe (HIBP) diagnostic on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7 X) superconducting stellarator will provide a unique ability to advance understanding of neoclassical and turbulent particle and energy transport. We present results of beam simulations which show that measurement signal levels, calculated using neo-classical density and temperature profiles with central densities up to 1020 m-3, will enable study in the eight W7-X reference magnetic configurations of the equilibrium plasma potential and Er at all radii, and ion-scale fluctuations of ne and potential in the outer plasma region. Elements of the diagnostic design include (1) a beam of thallium or cesium ions having a maximum energy of 2 MeV; (2) injection and detection of the beam through previously allocated ports; (3) a toroidal magnetic field in the + direction of W7-X; and (4) location of all HIBP system components outside of the W7 X cryostat. These design parameters can be realized using the accelerator and energy analyzer of the TEXT-U 2 MeV HIBP (which is now in Greifswald), and beam steering systems having smaller electrodes and electric fields (but higher voltages) than those of the TEXT-U diagnostic. This work is supported by US DoE Award DE-SC0013918.
A technique for identifying trends in performance degradation for inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments will be discussed. It is based on reconstruction of the implosion core with a combination of low- and mid-mode asymmetries. This technique was applied to the ensemble of hydro-equivalent deuterium--tritium implosions on OMEGA that achieved hot-spot pressures ≈56±7 Gbar.(1) The analysis suggests that in addition to low modes, that can cause a degradation of the stagnation pressure mid modes are present that reduce the size of the burn volume. The systematic analysis shows that asymmetries can cause an overestimation of the total areal density in these implosions. It is also found that an improvement in implosion symmetry resulting from correction of either the systematic mid or low modes would result in an increase of the hot-spot pressure from 56 Gbar to ≈80 Gbar. This material is based upon work supported by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under subcontract B614207 and by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944. (1)S. Regan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 025001 (2016)
The ITER Plasma Position Reflectometry diagnostic aims to provide measurements of the edge plasma to correct or supplement the magnetics for plasma position control. It consists of five systems, two of which are installed inside the vessel. One of these systems probes the plasma from the high-field side using small pyramidal horns located in the gap between two blankets. Electromagnetic simulations have shown that the blankets shape the radiation pattern and need to be considered as part of the antenna. Full-wave plasma simulations have shown that the first-wall geometry might induce measurement errors above the required ±1 cm. To further address these issues, we manufactured an antenna prototype that includes a mock-up of the blankets. Here, we present the results of the prototype tests in an anechoic chamber and using a target metallic mirror, with and without the blankets. The signals from varying target distances are used to assess the precision/accuracy of the system with time-frequency data analysis techniques employed to obtain automatic routine density profiles in current devices. The sensitivity to tolerances in the blankets’ installation is assessed by changing the height of the blankets’ gap as well as the antenna’s position with respect to their surfaces.
Cross-polarization scattering (CPS) provides localized magnetic fluctuation measurements in fusion plasmas based upon the process where magnetic fluctuations scatter electromagnetic radiation into the perpendicular polarization. The CPS system on DIII-D utilizes the probe beam of the Doppler backscattering (DBS) diagnostic and a crossing CPS receive beam, which allows simultaneous density and magnetic fluctuation measurements with good spatial resolution and wavenumber coverage. The interpretation of the signals is challenging due to the complex propagation of the DBS probing beam and CPS receive beam in plasmas. A synthetic diagnostic for CPS is therefore essential to interpreting data and detailed validation tests of non-linear turbulence simulations. This work reports a first step towards a synthetic diagnostic for CPS, utilizing GENRAY, a 3-D ray tracing code, to simulate the propagation of the DBS probing and CPS receive beam centers within the plasma. Results of probed wavenumbers in the current CPS system on DIII-D, and optimization of antenna locations and orientations for future system upgrades are presented. Work supported by USDOE Grants DE-FG02-08ER54984 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
An oxide coated cathode discharge has been characterized using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and Planar LIF. The ion temperature was measured in the center of an argon discharge by LIF diagnosis, and the ion density profiles was measured by PLIF diagnosis. Same Laser system consisting of a pumping pulse laser and a tunable dye laser was used in these two measurements. The absorption spectra measurements of a heated iodine cell are used to monitor the relative wavelength of the laser during the LIF measurement. The ion temperature was found to be about 0.5eV, which was close to the result of gridded electrostatic energy analyzers. The ion density profiles measured by PLIF and the electron density profiles measured by probes have similar structures, and PLIF offers higher spatial and temporal resolutions.
In the development of magnetic confined fusion reactors, the accumulation of impurities is one of the most important subjects for concern because it potentially causes cooling down of the hot plasma. On the other hand, appropriate radiation from localized impurity might mitigate the heat load onto the divertor plate. The tracer-encapsulated solid pellet (TESPEL) has generated certain results in these studies. However, the TESPEL technique has several points to be improved, e.g. a penetration depth, increase in amount of the tracer impurity, and so on. In this study, tracer contained compact toroid (TCCT) injection system utilizing a magnetized coaxial plasma gun (MCPG) has been developed. Discharge current on the MCPG sputters and ionizes the electrode material such as tungsten and accelerate it by the Lorenz-self force. The MCPG easily accelerate the plasmoid higher than the ion thermal velocity of several tens km/s. The accelerated and ejected plasmoid containing tracer ions is warm ionized plasma itself. Therefore, the TCCT is potentially injected the core region of target plasma. Behavior of tracer ions in the compact toroid injected into the transverse magnetic field has been experimentally investigated.
A new electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) which contains two 16-antenna arrays is being developed on J-TEXT. The mixers in the same antenna array will be driven by the same microwave source. So an optics system is needed to expand the point source to an elongated line source. A traditional spherical local oscillator (LO) optics used to be designed to couple the LO signals and RF power into 16 vertical antennas. There are many limitations which include but not limit to: the driving power to the mixers of the edge channels, the collimation of the LO signal, the restricted optical path length, and so on. Therefore the traditional spherical LO optics on J-TEXT has some modification based on these questions. In addition, an advanced aspheric lens called Powell lens is employed to supersede the traditional one. Powell lens optics not only has the same advantages of traditional spherical LO optics, but also realizes the uniform distribution of LO power on the antennas. The length from LO source to antenna arrays is about 1.1m. And a new 3-pieces Powell LO optics which improves the robustness of 2-pieces Powell LO optics will be introduced. Furthermore, a presentation for simulation results and comparison of these LO optics will be given in this paper.
Photek are a well-established supplier of microchannel plate (MCP) photomultiplier tubes (PMT) to the inertial confinement fusion community, and have several detectors installed at NIF, Omega (LLE Rochester) and Orion (AWE). The MCP-PMTs produced by Photek have the shortest response time recorded by devices of this type with a small area single MCP PMT having a FWHM of < 100 ps, and in recent years we have also made significant improvements to their gating ability. The analogue signals produced at the major ICF facilities cover many orders of magnitude and often need multiple detectors operating at different levels of electron gain. As such, understanding the upper saturation limit of MCP-PMTs to large, low rate signals takes on a high importance. A previous study looked at the saturation limit of double and single MCP-PMTs over their full working area with pulse widths between 4 ns and 100 ns. This follow-on analysis will look at the effect of how the illuminated area affects the saturation limit, and how the saturation behaves from pulse widths from 4 ns down to the PMT limit of ~ 100 ps.
The lithium beam is an effective diagnostic tool for investigation of stability and particle transport in the pedestal. It was used successfully to measure edge current density12 on DIII-D, achieving qualitative agreement with neoclassical models. Electron density profiles were also measured3. Proposed upgrades will continue these measurements with higher reliability as well as explore new applications such as measurement of impurity and main ion density and temperature using charge exchange emission, and edge current measurements using high resolution spectroscopy. Beam performance will be optimized using new lithium sources, beam tuning, and monitoring. The optics will be redesigned to optimize throughput and aperture broadening, and to replace the PMTs with APDs. New techniques will be developed for background subtraction, using beam modulation and background monitoring. The new system will yield detailed measurements of the pedestal, complementing existing diagnostics for investigating pedestal stability, ELM cycle, and particle transport through the pedestal. *Supported by US DOE DE-FG03-96ER54373 and DE-FG02-97ER54415 1D.M. Thomas. AIP Conf. Proc. 926, 56 (2007) 2D.M. Thomas, et al, Phys. Plasmas 12, 056123 (2005) 3H. Stoschus, et. al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D508 (2012)
In this paper we describe an in-situ calibration technique for the Coherence Imaging Systems (CIS) that measure 2-D images[1] of plasma ion flows[2] on DIII-D. A low power CW diode laser that is tuneable in the range 464-467 nm along with a precision wavemeter (0.01 pm resolution) is used to characterize the interferometer phase as a function of wavelength in the region of CIII (465 nm) and He II (468 nm). The interferometer is stabilized both mechanically and thermally to minimize drift during the calibration. Optical stirring and a labsphere are used to obtain spatially uniform calibration images. The quality of the calibration data enables a measurement of both linear and quadratic terms over approximately 10 fringes of the interferometer. These coefficients can also be related to the geometry of the optics and the birefringent crystal of the interferometer. On DIII-D, the labsphere is inserted into the CIS optical system between shots and the calibration data is automatically recorded. Work supported by the US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698 and DE-AC52-07NA27344. [1] W.H. Meyer, et al., these proceedings (invited). [2] C.M. Samuell, et al., these proceedings (invited).
The Crystal Backlighter Imager (CBI) is a monochromatic x-ray radiography diagnostic developed with the goal of imaging the late stages of inertial confinement fusion implosions on the NIF. Initially, CBI could only provide a single radiograph per crystal x-ray optic per experiment given the use of a microchannel plate camera as the detector. The Single-Line-of-Sight (SLOS) framing camera is a transformative diagnostic that records a sequence (2-4) of fast-gated (100-35ps) x-ray images along the same line of sight. CBI has recently been coupled to SLOS, which increased the data output to multiple radiographs from a single crystal x-ray optic per NIF shot. Results will be presented from several experiments used to commission the coupling of CBI to SLOS. Spatial resolution as a function of backlighter standoff was measured by radiographing test objects. Timing calibration was achieved by comparing SLOS radiographs to one from the microchannel plate camera, whose timing was known to high accuracy, on two nominally-identical capsule implosions shots. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Release # LLNL-ABS-744383.
Laser-irradiating a foil to create a radiation source is a common procedure in high-energy-density experiments. Foil radiation sources are used to drive physical phenomena or diagnostics - such as radiography. Radiography images measure the reduction in intensity of a radiation source through an object, which implies a line-integrated density. Point backlit radiography requires that a pinhole is placed between the laser-irradiated foil and the object to image. The pinhole size and placement controls radiation uniformity, image magnification and resolution. However, point backlit radiography is limited by the amount of data it can collect, typically one image per axis.We present our first design and results from a multi-pinhole backlit radiography source. The pinholes coexist on the same substrate and are independently triggered 2 ns apart. A 100 micron titanium wall separates the pinholes on the laser irradiated substrate.This work is funded by the U.S. DOE, through the NNSA-DS and SC-OFES Joint Program in HEDPLP, grant No. DE-NA0002956, and the NLUF Program, grant No. DE-NA0002719, and through LLE, University of Rochester by the NNSA/OICF under Cooperative Agreement No. DE-NA0001944. This work is funded by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under subcontract B614207.
A novel type of surface eroding thermocouple (SETC) has been tested and installed in the small angle slot (SAS) divertor of DIII-D for fast local heat flux measurements. The thermojunction of SETC is formed between two thin (10 micron) ribbons, which are filed over to create microfiber junctions. They are able to be exposed directly to the plasma at surface temperatures exceeding 2000℃ and are capable of sub-10ms time resolution. Before installation in SAS, the SETCs were exposed at the lower divertor during L-mode and H-mode discharges, from which results are presented. In preliminary tests, SETCs proved to be a qualified diagnostic to accurately measure both the intra-ELM and inter-ELM heat flux during H-mode shots with high frequency ELMs (hundreds of Hz) and resolve heat flux profiles during strike point sweeps. The heat fluxes measured by SETCs have a good consistency with heat fluxes measured by IR camera and Langmuir probes. These new diagnostic capabilities will complement the existing IR camera measurements and will be of particularly significant value to measure surface heat flux in the SAS divertor or other regions where the IR camera lacks line-of-sight.US DOE support DE-SC0016318, DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-AC05-00OR22725, DE-FG02-07ER54917, DE-NA0003525.
In May 2017, the Opacity Spectrometer (OpSpec) recorded the first X-ray transmission data for iron-magnesium plasmas on NIF, at “Anchor 1” sample conditions (150 eV and 7E21 e-/cc). The OpSpec is a critical diagnostic that will be used to collect data needed to verify recent iron opacity measurements done at the Sandia National Laboratory’s Z-facility. OpSpec diffracts X-rays in the 540-2100 eV range off a KAP or RbAP crystal onto either image plates or, most recently, X-ray film. Modifications to further improve OpSpec’s performance have been implemented in recent NIF shots in August and December 2017. Significant improvement were seen in the reduction of background levels, mitigation of damage to the crystals and rear filters and in increased resolving power toward a goal of E/dE > 700. This poster will present these improvements and the resulting data. Future design improvements and goals for 2018 will also be discussed. DOE/NV/03624--0024
In an electron beam ion trap, ions are not confined to the electron beam, but rather oscillate in and out of the beam. To determine the time-averaged effective electron density n_e,eff that the ion experiences, the size of the electron beam, the nominal electron density n_e, and the ion cloud size must all be measured. We use imaging techniques in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and optical to determine both. In particular, the electron beam width is measured using 3d-3p transitions from Fe XII and XIII around 200 Å. These transitions are fast and the EUV emission occurs only within the electron beam. The resulting spatial emission profile and the measured electron current yields n_e, and we find values on the order of 1010-1012cm-3. We determine the size of the ion cloud using optical emission from metastable levels of the ions with lifetimes longer than the ion orbital periods. The resulting emission maps out the spatial distribution of the ion cloud. We find cloud radii on the order of 300 μm. This gives an effective electron density, n_e,eff experienced by the ions of 109-1011 cm-3. This work is supported in part by NASA H-TIDeS grant NNX16AF10G. Work at LLNL is performed under the auspices of the U.S. DoE under contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Heating, current drive, and partial fueling from neutral beam injection are essential to the sustainment of C-2W field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas. C-2W has eight 1.7 MW neutral beams (total of 13.6 MW), each capable of providing an elliptically-shaped beam of 15 keV hydrogen neutrals for 30 ms. To maximize the effectiveness of neutral beam injection, duct losses must be minimized. Maintaining beam alignment and optimizing beam current for minimum divergence achieve this. Each beam terminates on a vertical and horizontal array of secondary electron emission (SEE) detectors (eight in the vertical, six in the horizontal, and one in the middle). The molybdenum detectors are spatially separated to characterize the beam size and alignment. With knowledge of the geometry of vacuum ducts and two beam profiles from test stand measurements, the focal length, divergence and power loss were calculated. Through characterization, the set of neutral beams are optimized to inject up to ~13 MW of power into the confinement vessel throughout the plasma discharge.
We report on a potentially significant improvement in the design of vacuum gauges of the so-called ASDEX-type. Such gauges are in wide use in fusion experiments, but they nonetheless suffer from a relatively high failure rate when operated at high magnetic field strengths for long times. For example, in Wendelstein 7-X only 6 of 18 pressure gauges survived plasma operation in the operational phase 1.2a. This is therefore a significant concern for long-pulse, high-field experiments such as Wendelstein 7-X and ITER. The new design is much more robust. The improvement is to use a LaB6 crystal instead of a tungsten wire as the thermionic emitter of electrons in the gauge. Such a LaB6 prototype gauge was successfully operated for a total of 60 hours in B = 3.1 T, confirming the significantly improved robustness of the new design, and qualifying it for near-term operation in W7-X. With the LaB6 crystal, an order of magnitude reduction in heating current is achieved, relative to the tungsten filament based gauges, from 15-20 A to 1-2 A. This reduces the Lorenz forces by an order of magnitude also, presumably the reason for the much improved robustness. The new gauge design, results from test operation in a 3T magnat and the set-up of the new gauges on W7-X are described.
A corresponding photoelectric detection system was initiatively designed for fast-ion D-alpha spectrum diagnosis on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). The biggest challenge in designing is to improve the signal-to-noise ratio to detect the FIDA signal in the same spectral range from the other light sources when the neutral beam is injected. The new photoelectric detection system consists of a photomultiplier tube (PMT) and a current amplifier (using a sapphire material instead of a conventional printed circuit board) with high temporal resolution and spatial resolution. The system parameters are designed with a total photon-to-voltage gain of and the current amplifier with a current-to-voltage gain of V / A and a -3dB bandwidth at 300kHz. The EAST discharge experiment in July 2017 showed that the FIDA signal was well detected and the fast ion properties were deduced from the Doppler shift spectrum of D-alpha light.
The lithium tokamak experiment has undergone an upgrade to LTX-β, a major part of which is the addition of NBI. NBI has allowed for a CHERS system to be installed. The CHERS system will measure impurity concentrations (mainly lithium), ion temperature, and toroidal velocity. Previously on LTX these parameters relied on passive spectroscopy and inversion techniques or were unavailable. Typical LTX-β is expected to have its magnetic axis near 35 cm, with minor radii of 18-23 cm. The CHERS system has 52 total views, split into four groups of 13. The beam views sample a major radius of 28-60 cm, with a resolution of 1.5-2.5 cm. A multi-view mounting apparatus was built to accommodate this broad set of views, while maximizing the precision of the system. Because the beam flux cannot be oscillated, half the views point away from the beam symmetrical to the beam views and are used to acquire and then subtract the non-beam related emission. Three separate spectrometers will be used for the diagnostic. The viewing optics are f/1.8, allowing all of the spectrometers to be fully illuminated. Calibration of the system as well as the advantages of various configurations of the spectrometers will be highlighted. This work is supported by US DOE contracts DE-AC02-09CH11466 and DE-AC05-00OR22725
The development of high speed imaging detectors is crucial for high-temperature plasma characterization and optimization. These detectors must perform within many strict parameters, such as precise timing, high spatial resolution, low noise, high gain, and fast gating. We present test results on a picosecond gated optical intensifier (GOI) that meets these requirements. The detector was developed by Kentech, and is part of a packaged Sydor solution of 1-8 detectors, designed for use in plasma diagnostics. It has low jitter (STD ~4 ps) and gate widths less than 80 ps. We use a pulsed laser to test the gate profile and the spatial resolution performance of the intensifier at different points within the gate. We investigate gain, saturation, and noise. We anticipate that this GOI will have many applications. Katz et al. have used a GOI to image scattered 3ω light refracted off plasma density gradients in order to better understand cross-beam energy transfer [1]; faster gate times will reduce blur. These GOIs have been implemented on Orion for 2D VISAR [2], and will soon be used on the Z machine as well. 1. Katz, et al., OLUGW, (2017). 2. A.L. Meadowcroft, et al., Plasma Phys. Note 49/15 (2015).
Neutral beam injected fast ions play a dominant role in the C-2W plasma at TAE, heating the plasma and sustaining the field-reversed configuration, making the diagnosis of these fast ions a major pillar of our research program. Recently, a collaboration between TAE Technologies and the University of Wisconsin was conducted to develop a method for measuring a fast changing fast ion spatial profile with a fusion proton detector. The steerable detector was designed and built at TAE and installed on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) reversed field pinch (RFP) plasma. The fusion proton emission profile resulting from injection of a 25 kV deuterium neutral beam is measured with 5 cm spatial resolution and 100 µs temporal resolution over the course of several 10s of reproducible shots. The fast ion density profile is reconstructed by orbit tracing through the reconstructed equilibrium. The fast ion density profile is observed to flatten during global magnetic tearing mode activity, dropping by 30% in the core and increasing by a similar amount at the edge. The profile is observed to remain stiff during energetic particle mode (EPM) activity, consistent with measurements with a collimated neutron detector.
The streaked Orion high-resolution x-ray spectrometer (STOHREX) is a combination and adaptation of the time integrating OHREX spectrometer front end, currently operating at the ORION laser facility, and a sub-pico second LLNL streak camera. The new instrument is being developed to gain temporal information on spectral lines produced in short pulse heated plasmas at the ORION laser facility. STOHREX was recently tested at the TITAN laser facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. This unique diagnostic system, in which the streak camera is encompassed, resides entirely outside of the laser target chamber. Employing a spherically bent Ge crystal and focusing on Si and Ni targets at TITAN we show that x-ray throughput appears sufficient for measurements with ~1ps resolution on the Orion laser. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LLNL under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Newly developed large-area pixelated two-dimensional detector and two-crystal assemblies were deployed for the first time on tokamaks to enable time-resolved Bragg-diffracted x-ray imaging with good framing rate and water-cooling capabilities for in-vacuum long-pulse operations. High-quality Helium-like and Hydrogen-like Argon spectra have been observed simultaneously for the first time on a single detector for a wide range of plasma parameters to infer both ion temperature and rotation profiles and support studies on spontaneous rotation, impurity transport and RF physics. Since tokamak plasmas rotate in both the poloidal (\theta) and toroidal (\Phi) directions, a reliable wavelength calibration is needed to account for the correct Doppler shift as well as to compute the spectrometer’s instrumental function. K_\alpha and L_\alpha lines emitted from Cd and Ti x-ray tubes are currently being used as ‘markers’ to provide an in-situ calibration of the EAST-XICS systems measuring He- and H-like Argon as well as Ne-like Xenon spectra. Other indirect calibration methods using locked-mode discharge scenarios, local comparison with CXRS measurements as well as NTM-frequencies at specific rational surfaces were also studied as complementary methods.
A versatile combination Doppler Backscattering (DBS) and Cross-Polarization Scattering (CPS) diagnostic for the C-2W Beam-Driven Field-Reversed Configuration is described. This system is capable of measuring density fluctuations and perpendicular magnetic field fluctuations across a wide wavenumber range, with typical resolution ≤ 0.4. Four tunable frequencies (26 GHz ≤ f ≤ 60 GHz corresponding to plasma densities 0.8x10^19m-3 ≤ n_e ≤ 3x10^19m-3) are launched via quasi-optical beam combiners/polarizers and an adjustable parabolic focusing mirror selecting the beam incidence angle. GENRAY ray tracing shows that the incident X-mode and backscattered CPS O-mode beam trajectories essentially overlap for C-2W plasma parameters, allowing simultaneous detection of ñ and B~ from the same scattering volume. We also discuss DBS measurements of the toroidal wavenumber spectrum of gyro-scale density fluctuations in the previous C-2U FRC (0.5 ≤ k rho_s ≤ 10 with the ion sound gyroradius rho_s). Only high-k (electron-scale) density fluctuations have been detected in the C-2U core, while a broad exponential wavenumber spectrum was observed in the scrape-off layer surrounding the FRC plasma, in agreement with gyrokinetic simulations [1]. [1] L. Schmitz et al., Nat. Comm. 7, 13860 (2016).
At large laser faculties such as OMEGA and NIF, x-ray spectrometers are provided by the facility. These spectrometers are often used as backlighter monitors or to diagnosis plasma conditions. Often the calibration of these spectrometers is unknown or out of date. As a remedy to this for flat crystal spectrometers, a model with a ray trace method for is described which can be used with only basic information regarding the optical design of the spectrometer. This model is then used to output photometric throughput estimates, dispersion, solid angle, and spectral resolution estimates. This model is applied to three different flat crystal spectrometers at the National Ignition Facility (MACS and SSI) and University of Rochester OMEGA laser facilities (XRS). This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Shenguang-III (SG-III) laser facility is a new high power laser facility in China. It is built for the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments with 100kJ laser driven. The X-ray streak camera is required in many experiments, such as the implosion trajectory measurement, the plasma movement with X-ray emission and the time-resolved X-ray spectrum measurement. The X-ray streak cameras with a coaxial structure deflection system had successfully operated in the middle plane of SG-III facility. Recently, a new compact X-ray streak camera has been developed and accessed the target chamber by a general-diagnostics instrument manipulator (DIM) in the north polar zone of SG-III facility. The streak tube of the new camera adopted a planar structure deflection system. The camera was assembled in a gas chamber. The length of the camera was just 1.2m. It has a spatial resolution of 25 lp/mm and a time resolution of 8 ps. The linear dynamic range was still over 200. The new camera has already been employed to measure the process of the plasma filling in the gas-filled and vacuum hohlraums. The sightline was through the laser entrance hole (LEH). The angle between the sightline and the hohlraum axis was 16 degree.
The Beam Emission Spectroscopy (BES) diagnostic measures long wavelength density fluctuations by measuring Doppler shifted H-alpha/D-alpha emission arising from collisions between heating neutral beam particles and background plasma electrons, ions and impurities. A novel integrated compact 2D BES system is currently being designed, tested and built for HL-2A and future HL-2M tokamak. A high throughput optical lens and optical fiber bundles collect light for two 8-channel 2D detector systems. A set of five plano-convex lenses and interference filter collimates, filters and focuses beam emission light onto a circular array of in-vacuum thermoelectrically cooled photodiode detectors. Eight high-gain and low-noise preamplifier circuits are integrated on a single circuit board for a compact design. External amplifiers and 16-bit simultaneously sampling 2 MHz digitizers record the signal. Low noise is achieved with a TEC cooling system that maintains detectors at -20º C with air-cooling. Testing and initial plasma data from the HL-2A tokamak will be presented. The new integrated system is designed to simplify operation, detector size, and reduce per-channel costs. Performance will be compared with that obtained with a more conventional individual modular detector system.
Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) compresses a preheated, magnetized, deuterium-filled Be cylinder, using magnetic direct drive from high-current pulsed power devices such as Sandia’s Z-machine. A major complication of existing MagLIF targets is the presence of a solid-density window that a preheat laser must pass through before being absorbed in the low-density gas that comprises the fusion fuel. This complication can potentially be eliminated by applying techniques used in shock tubes in which the diaphragm containing the high-pressure gas is punctured and allowed to mechanically be pushed away from the target axis by expanding gas from the main target volume. We will report on experiments testing the feasibility of this new type of MagLIF target in which we use a low-energy pulsed laser to puncture the target window. We make use of a new generation of compact and high-speed hybrid-CMOS digital framing cameras to visualize the dynamics of the target window puncture and subsequent expansion and to measure the uniformity of laser-heating of the target gas using the multi-kJ Z-Beamlet laser facility. Sandia is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell Int, Inc, for the U.S. DOE’s NNSA under contract DE-NA0003525.
An alternative calibration method has been developed for Doppler Coherence Imaging Spectroscopy (CIS). CIS is an interferometric technique for high-speed imaging of impurity flow in the tokamak scrape-off layer, where the flow zero is calibrated using a reference phase image at the rest wavelength of the targeted emission. Recent work at DIII-D has demonstrated that accurate extrapolation of this calibration image from a nearby (+/- 3.5 nm) laboratory spectral source is possible using an optical model of the instrument that is constrained using a tunable laser. Here we present an alternative implementation of this method, relying upon two spectral lamps (Cd and Zn) for the necessary dispersion characterisation. A total of six spectral lines in the range 467 nm - 509 nm are individually isolated using interference filters, allowing for calibrated velocity measurement of CIII and HeII plasma emission at 464.9nm and 468.6nm respectively. Also presented are forward modeled measurements of carbon flow in the MAST-U divertor in the conventional and Super-X configurations, generated using SOLPS. This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/L01663X/1] and also by the US DOE under DE-AC52-07NA27344 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
Neutron time-of-flight (nToF) diagnostics at the NIF were recently outfitted with novel Cherenkov detectors. A quartz radiator delivers sub-nanosecond response time and is optically coupled to a MCP-PMT with gain ~1 to 10^4. Capitalizing on its fast response time, its sensitivity to gamma particles, and customized digitization, these systems provide better than 50 ps precision in measured moments of neutron distribution functions. An effort is underway to generate ab initio instrument response functions (IRF) to support the <1% uncertainty needed to resolve these moments. A combination of Monte Carlo modeling, benchtop characterization, and in-situ comparison is employed. Close agreement is shown between modeled IRFs and in-situ measurements using the NIF’s 10-ps pulse capability. Calculated 1st and 2nd moments from DT neutron spectra agree well with established scintillator measurements, and show reduced dependence on IRFs. Next steps for optimized design and modeling will be discussed. Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. IM release: LLNL-ABS-744408
Warm dense Matter (WDM), intermediate between solids and plasmas, exhibits properties common to both. Due to its complexity, it is vital to directly measure the dynamic structure factor, providing information on electron-electron and ion-ion coupling. The high frequency plasmons, with an energy transfer of ~1-10 eV, have been successfully investigated using X-ray spectroscopy at large laser facilities. However, the low frequency ion acoustic modes, providing vital information regarding viscosity and thermal conductivity, have an energy transfer of just 0.1-1 eV, requiring diagnostics with a much smaller bandwidth and larger photon number than that achievable at large laser facilities. The advent of hard X-ray FELs, such as LCLS at SLAC has allowed unprecedented access to investigating the ion-ion structure factor. Here, we present a setup at the Matter at Extreme Conditions endstation used to measure ion acoustic modes in WDM. We combine the extremely bright X-ray source provided by LCLS with a four-pass single crystal monochromator, and diced Si crystal analysers to perform inelastic X-ray scattering measurements with a resolution of 50 meV. We demonstrate the measurement of phonons in diamond, and show this setup may be extended to studying materials in the WDM regime.
C-2W field-reversed configuration (FRC) experiments [1] are focused to resolve major physics issues facing the future of FRC devices. To achieve these goals, it is essential to measure the plasma equilibrium dynamics and monitor plasma fluctuations. One of the critical diagnostics under development is a 14-chord three-wave far infrared (FIR) laser interferometry and polarimetry system, which can provide simultaneous high temporal resolution measurements of density and Faraday rotation profiles with high accuracy. The unique challenges facing FIR diagnostics in high beta FRC plasmas are the extremely small (< 0.5 degrees) Faraday rotation angles, severe laser beam refraction effects due to high density gradients and choice of long wavelength [2], and extremely high electromagnetic noise produced by the plasma forming pulsed power circuits. The electro-opto-mechanical design and development of the system will be described with methods to overcome the challenges. Initial experimental data will be presented. [1] M.W. Binderbauer et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 1721, 030003 (2016). [2] B.H. Deng et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11E125 (2016).
A phase contrast imaging (PCI) diagnostic [1] was developed and installed for the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) OP1.2a campaign which took place in the latter half of 2017 [2]. The PCI technique applied to plasmas provides measurements of coherent and turbulent fluctuations in the electron density. These fluctuations act as a phase grating to the incident coherent light from a CO2 laser. Collection optics gather both the scattered (m=+/-1) and unscattered (m=0) components. An optical element called a phase plate, which is located at a focal plane of the optical system, provides a pi/2 phase shift to the unscattered component. Following this, the optics create an image at the detectors whose intensity is linear in the absolute electron density perturbation. The W7-X PCI system can measure fluctuations with wavenumbers perpendicular to the laser beam in the range of approximately 0.5 cm^-1 to 20 cm^-1, and frequencies in the range of 1 kHz to approximately 1 MHz. We will present an overview of the diagnostic design and capabilities, and will highlight measurements from the OP1.2a campaign that illustrate Alfvénic activity and changes in broadband turbulent spectra with magnetic configuration. This works is supported by the US Department of Energy. [1] Porkolab et al., IEEE Trans. Plasm
Correlation techniques have been successfully utilized for plasma diagnostics like electron cyclotron emission to reduce measurement noise. We present the first application of such a technique to interferometer-polarimeter operation on the Madison Symmetric Torus. The MST FIR interferometer-polarimeter diagnostic utilizes 11 vertical chords with a spatial resolution of 7-8 cm and a heterodyne detection system for fluctuation measurements up to several hundred kHz. The planar-diode mixers viewing each chord represent independent noise sources; modifying the optical setup so that two different mixers view the same chord allows cross-correlation between the two independent signals to reduce the noise floor in fluctuation measurements. In this manner, the noise floor in both interferometry and polarimetry measurements in reversed-field pinch discharges has been reduced by a factor of 20-30. The correlation polarimeter provides a sensitive measurement of broadband fluctuations. For chords near the magnetic axis, measured Faraday rotation fluctuations are dominated by the radial magnetic field component. Radial magnetic fluctuations measured with correlation polarimetry have been obtained in standard RFP discharges and discharges with suppressed tearing mode activity.
Spectrally and temporally resolved x-ray emission of highly charged mid-Z ions is utilized for characterizing the electron temperature (Te) in the equatorial region of a laser-driven ignition-type NIF hohlraum. Line-intensity measurements are used to infer the ionization balance and electron temperature. Spectral analysis shows a peak electron temperature of Te = (2.7 ± 0.4) keV at the hohlraum equator between the high-density-carbon capsule ablator and the gold wall of the hohlraum. While we find agreement with post-shot simulations during the peak of the laser drive, some disagreement between the measured and simulated Te remains in the earlier part of the laser heating. We present a detailed error analysis of the spectroscopic measurements, the corresponding error in the electron temperature, and a discussion of the requirements for the spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution in order to constrain the radiation-hydrodynamic models currently used to simulate the plasma conditions. *This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Among the major goals of ITER project is the study of fast ions and alpha particles behavior. Fast ions with anisotropic velocity distribution functions (VDF) can be created by additional plasma heating such as NBI and ICRH. A charge-exchange atoms and neutrons spectrometer with tangential lines of sight (for short, Tangential Neutral Spectrometer, TNS) for ITER has been developed and is presented here. This system is dedicated to studies of fast ion V|| evolution, radial redistribution and loses as the result of plasma instabilities development. The TNS observes ITER's plasma along three horizontal chords that reach 1) plasma core, 2) ¼ of minor radius and 3) ½ of minor radius. Three detector modules with diamond detectors sensitive to both atoms and neutrons will be installed in ITER's equatorial port 8. In the H/He phase of ITER operation the TNS will provide fast charge-exchange atoms spectra. In the DT phase of ITER neutron fluxes will dominate the measurements and the system will provide collimated spectra of DT neutrons. Tangential and radial measurements will be interpreted to reconstruct fast ions 3D VDF. Performance of the TNS diagnostic at 100 ms timescales has been evaluated for both use-cases by means of DOUBLE-MC and MCNP codes.
Quantitative understanding of the physics of dust or granular matter transport significantly impacts several aspects of burning plasma science and technology. This work takes machine vision techniques popular in robotics and self-driving cars and applies them to identification and analysis of microparticles generated from exploding wires. Using only the image frames and knowledge of the intrinsic properties of the cameras, a Python code was written to identify the particles, automatically calibrate the images, and extract trajectory data. After identifying approximately 50 particles based on the timing of secondary particle explosions, the Eight Point and Random Sample Consensus algorithms were used to determine the correlation between the cameras. Over 100 particle matches were found between the two camera views. These correlated trajectories were used in subsequent 3D track reconstruction and analysis of the physics behind the particle behavior. The 3D reconstruction resulted in accurate positioning of the particles with respect to the experimental calibration. The particle motion was consistent with the effects of a 1g gravitational field modified by drag forces. The methods and analyses presented here can be used in many facets of high temperature plasma diagnostics.
Fusion reaction history and ablator areal density measurements for Inertial Confinement Fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility are conducted using the Gamma Reaction History diagnostic (GRH-6m). Future Gas Cherenkov Detectors (GCD) will ultimately provide ~200x more sensitivity, reduce the effective temporal resolution from ~100 to ~10 ps and lower the energy threshold from 2.9 to 1.8 MeV, relative to GRH-6m. The first phase consisted of inserting the existing coaxial GCD-3 detector into a reentrant well which put it within 4 meters of the implosion. This diagnostic platform has allowed assessment of the x-ray radiation background environment within the well which will be fed into the shielding design for a follow-on “Super” GCD. It has also enabled use of a revolutionary new pulse-dilation photomultiplier tube (PD-PMT) to improve the effective measurement bandwidth by >10x relative to current PMT technology. The next phase is to improve sensitivity by increasing solid angle. This can be accomplished with a single GCD w/ PD-PMT on a TANDM diagnostic insertor, or multiple smaller GCDs on a TANDM with standard PMTs. The PD-PMT version would provide unprecedented temporal resolution, while the multiple GCD concept would allow for time-resolved mix measurements.
Wendelstein 7-X (W7X) is equipped with multiple reflectometry systems which are dedicated to measure localized density fluctuations. Two monostatic Doppler reflectometry (DR) systems (V/W-band) with fixed tilt angles allow to infer the radial electric field Er in the range r/a > 0.7 which extends also into the SOL region where strong modifications of the magnetic topology for the different configurations of W7-X appear. A poloidal correlation reflectometry (PCR) system (K/Ka-band) utilizing five antennae allows to characterize the spatio-temporal behaviour of density fluctuations from which E_r can also be deduced. At low-density operation the PCR measurement range extends to r/a~0.3 such that transitions from the ion root in the plasma edge to the electron root in the plasma core can be observed in low collisionality plasmas. To overcome the limitation of a fixed tilt angle DR measurement diminishing the accessible fluctuation wavenumbers a phased array DR system (W-band) is operated that allows to steer the microwave beam. With a second, bistatic DR system at a different toroidal angle the zonal character of the fluctuations can be investigated. This paper gives an overview of the individual systems and summarizes key results from the first W7-X island divertor campaign.
At the National Ignition Facility, storage phosphor imaging plates (IP) are used extensively for recording x-rays, charged particles and neutrons. For x-ray imaging and spectroscopy, absolute and relative calibrations are important for extracting plasma information from the diagnostics. We use Fuji MS SR and TR image plates that have been cut to fit custom diagnostic envelopes. The image plates are scanned on a General Electric FLA 7000 IP flying spot image plate scanner. Calibrations for sensitivity, spatial scale and for temperature dependent fade are applied. During a set of recent calibrations, we noticed large shifts in the absolute calibration of the image plate system. The possible source of these shifts is discussed. We discuss the fade and temperature effects of the image plates and how this correction is applied within the NIF environment. We also compare our NIF FLA 7000 IP scanner with a new GE Amersham Typhoon IP scanner. In addition, the stability of the scanners and the procedural method for calibrations and workflow are discussed. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344, LLNL-ABS-744429.
Liquid-metal plasma facing components (LM-PFC’s) could provide fusion reactors with improved tritium breeding capabilities, enhanced power removal, and ‘self-healing’ interior surfaces that are immune to both radiation damage and thermal stress. During reactor operation, fast-moving, smooth-flowing LM-PFC surfaces are preferred since surface waves may cause non-uniform heating of the LM-PFC and splashing of liquid metal could upset or extinguish the plasma. However, surface waves and instabilities on LM-PFC’s can be caused by a number of different factors including interactions with tokamak surfaces (e.g. diagnostic ports), magnetic transients, and interactions with the ‘plasma wind’. Identifying the location and measuring the amplitude of liquid-metal waves during reactor operation is an important step towards minimizing and controlling them. Therefore, a non-invasive electromagnetic diagnostic has been developed to quantify localized surface waves in LM-PFC’s. This low-cost diagnostic is installed beneath the substrate that the liquid-metal flows so it is insulated from thermal transients. This paper provides details on the design, construction, and operation of the new diagnostic. Experimental data is compared to numerical results.
For the stellarator W7-X, spectroscopic systems detecting line radiation of light impurities and hydrogen from near UV to near IR for quantitative studies at two different divertors have been prepared. These systems comprise of various spectrometers with cooled CCD cameras as well as photomultipliers with interference filters for fast measurements (up to 100 kHz). At both positions, a versatile gas injection system has been installed for a wide range of applications. Trace amounts of helium for local measurement of ne and Te profiles using the line ratio method were routinely carried out. Perturbative impurity gasses (neon and nitrogen) were injected to study e.g. active radiation cooling in the divertor region or hydrogen for fuelling and studies of detached plasmas. During first part of OP1.2 strong heat flux reduction to the divertors has been observed for some hydrogen plasma conditions suggesting a completely detached plasma state. The capability of active control the detachment plasma conditions by local gas injection was investigated experimentally. Some results are shown pointing out possible scenarios for detachment optimization by feedback controlled gas injection which is planned for the upcoming second part of OP1.2.
The current Particle X-ray Temporal Diagnostic has been used to simultaneously measure X-ray-emission and nuclear-reaction histories in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) implosions at OMEGA. Through time-resolved measurements of the X-ray continuum, the time-evolution of the electron-temperature [Te(t)] can be inferred. Obtaining this information is essential in our efforts to understand the energy balance in cryogenic DT implosions, since Te(t) is not affected by residual hot-spot kinetic energy, as is the case for ion temperature measurements. This work defines the diagnostic requirements for measurement of Te(t) in warm and cryogenic DT implosions at OMEGA. Using synthetic data, a shielded X-ray Temporal Detector (XTD) with eight spectral channels, each composed of a scintillator and distinct-thickness Ti filter, coupled to an optical relay system and Ross streak camera, Te(t) in cryogenic DT implosions can be inferred to within +/-5% during peak burn. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Laboratory of Laser Energetics, Livermore National Lab, and the NLUF
RF system-on-chips permit mm-wave fusion plasma diagnostics to address major challenges: space inefficiency, inflexible installation, performance, and prohibitively high cost of conventional discrete component assemblies as higher imaging resolution and data accuracy are required and achieved by significant increases in numbers of channels. Today, CMOS technology can operate at >hundreds of GHz which is suitable for millimeter-wave diagnostics on current and future tokamaks. The Davis Millimeter Research Center (DMRC) team has extensive experience in designing fully customized square millimeter scale ICs for fusion science applications and has developed V-band (50-75 GHz) transmitter and receiver chips for Microwave Imaging Reflectometry (MIR). The transmitter can illuminate 8 different frequencies simultaneously. With the MMIC chip approach upgrade, the receiver has the capability to amplify the reflected signal (> 30 dB) while offering 20x reduction in noise temperature compared to current MIR processing. Plasma diagnostics requires ultra-wideband (>20 GHz) operation- x9 larger bandwidth than the recent commercial impetus for communication systems. Finally, current efforts are underway for GaAs MMIC receiver chips at W-Band (75-110 GHz) permitting measurements at higher fields.
Two scintillating fiber (Sci-Fi) detectors have been operated in the first deuterium campaign of the Large Helical Device (LHD) in order to investigate the time evolution of the triton burnup through secondary 14 MeV neutron measurement. Two detectors use scintillating fibers of 1 mm diameter embedded in an aluminum matrix with length of 10 cm, which connect to the magnetic field resistant photomultiplier (PMT) for signal output. A detector with 91 fibers was developed in Los Alamos National Laboratory and has been employed on the JT-60U. Another detector with 109 fibers has been developed in National Institute for Fusion Science. The signals are fed into a discriminator of 300 MHz bandwidth with pulse counter module for on-line measurement and a digitizer of 1 GHz sampling with 14 bits to acquire pulse shape information for off-line data analysis. The discrimination characteristics are evaluated by background and Co-60 gamma source. The triton burnup ratio has been evaluated shot-by-shot by the 14 MeV neutron measurement of Sci-Fi detectors which are calibrated by the neutron activation system and the total neutron measurement of the neutron flux monitor using U-235 fission chambers. The time evolution of triton burnup is investigated in different plasma configurations on LHD.
A Neutron Camera (NC) was used on the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) to measure the DD neutron emissivity along four collimated lines of sight, two on-axis and two off-axis, all viewing the plasma in tangential direction. The encouraging results obtained suggested that an upgraded NC for MAST-U would provide fundamental information for the study of fast ion physics. This work describes the design choices and characteristics of the NC Upgrade (NCU) system. These have been obtained on the basis of MAST-U simulated scenarios using TRANSP/NUBEAM in combination with engineering constraints. Detectors efficiency, collimators’ diameter and length and the magnetic and radiation shielding have been determined using finite element tools (COMSOL) and MCNP, respectively. The final NCU design consists of six, equatorial sight lines with a spatial resolution of 6 cm. The expected statistical uncertainty on the neutron count rates is 10% with a time resolution (integration) of 1 ms. Full plasma coverage can be obtained by moving the NCU in between plasma discharges. Off-axis lines of sight are not available in the present design but are briefly discussed as they are considered for a future upgrade.
CO2 laser interferometer is one of the most important diagnostics to evaluate line averaged electron density of magnetic confinement plasmas. In order to align and stabilize the beam axis, the beam axis and profile should be monitored. So far, a thermal imaging plate (TIP) on the market (Macken instruments Inc.) has been used as the beam profile monitor. This TIP is using thermal quenching effect. However, the commercial TIP cannot be used for a long time (~ 1 day) because the commercial TIP discolors from yellow to black by the ultraviolet light (λ ~ 360 nm) for excitation. In addition, the commercial TIP is burnable. These characteristics are not appropriate for the use in a radiation controlled area. In order to resolve these problems, the thermal imaging plate using a ceramics luminescence material which is excited by visible light has been developed for visualizing a CO2 laser beam. One of the promising ceramics luminescence materials is CaAlSiN3:Eu2+, which is excited by blue light (λ ~ 450 nm) and emits red light (λ ~ 680 nm). A fireproof characteristic of the CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ TIP has been confirmed. Moreover, the beam diameter evaluated by the CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ TIP has been approximately same as that evaluated by the commercial TIP.
Performance of the diagnostics suite device and initial observation results of collisional merging experiments in the FAT-CM device are presented. The FAT-CM device, consisting of two FRTP formation sections and a confinement section, has been developed to investigate the collisional merging process and the propagation properties of low-frequency wave in the high-beta compact toroid of field-reversed configurations (FRCs). In the FAT-FRC experiments, the dynamic process of collisional merging of FRCs at the relative velocity of 200-400km/s is observed by both magnetic and optical measurements. The typical parameters of merged FRC in the initial series of experiments are ~ 0.2 m in radius, ~ 2 m in length, electron density ~ 1x10^20 m^-3, external magnetic field ~ 0.07 T and total temperature ~ 100 eV in the equilibrium phase. Electron density of the merged FRC measured by two movable interferometers is approximately 10 times higher than the previous research at C-2U FRC [H. Gota et al., Nucl. Fusion 57, 116021 (2017)]. Also, the oscillating signal on the line-integrated electron density represents the rotational instability with toroidal mode number n = 2 is observed as one of the evidence of the formation of high-density FRC plasmas.
To investigate steady-state as well as fast transport processes in the plasma edge region of magnetically confined fusion plasmas, a thermal helium beam diagnostic has been implemented at ASDEX Upgrade. Neutral helium is injected into the plasma by a piezo valve to perform line ratio spectroscopy for electron density and temperature determination. An optical head with 53 lines of sight aligned with the magnetic field lines provides a radial resolution of 4 mm, covering 8 cm of the plasma edge region. The line resolved emission intensities of four He I lines are measured simultaneously with a newly developed 32 channel polychromator system, based on dichroic mirrors, small band interference filters and linear array photomultiplier tubes. The data acquisition rate is 900 kHz, which will also enable to study relaxation effects for the emission lines used. Beside the hardware setup, first measurement results of the He-beam diagnostic are shown during regime transitions. Electron temperature and density profiles are compared in L-mode, I-phase and H-mode as well as I-mode. The high spatial and temporal resolution allows the determination of the propagation velocity of fast transient events such as bursts and blobs.
Measurements of magnetic field profiles on the self-magnetic pinch (SMP) diode are critical to understanding the electron beam pinch dynamics throughout the current pulse. In the SMP diode, the planar anode, consisting of a high Z material, converts the beam energy into bremsstrahlung x-rays, resulting in dense plasma formation, on the anode surface. A fiber array images along the anode surface of the SMP diode. This array is coupled to a high-resolution, time gated spectrometer, which results in spectral measurements at several radii. Zeeman split C IV line emission is used to determine local magnetic fields, and a novel analysis technique utilizes the cylindrical symmetry of the electron beam to place an upper bound on the current density profile. Additionally, measurements of several Stark broadened spectral lines of differing charge states are used to determine electron density profiles. And finally, spectral line ratios are used to estimate electron temperatures.
Sandia National Labs is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525.
Wendelstein 7-X aims at quasi-steady state operation with up to 10 MW of heating power for 30 minutes. Power exhaust will be handled predominantly via 10 actively water cooled CFC based divertor units designed to withstand convective loads of 10 MW/m2 locally in steady state. If local loads exceed this value, a risk of local delamination of the CFC and failure of entire divertor modules arises. Infrared endoscopes for monitoring all main plasma facing components are being prepared and near real time software tools are under development to identify areas of excessive temperatures arising, distinguish them from none critical events, and trigger alarms. Test with different cameras were made in the recent campaign. Long pulse operation enforces additional diagnostics design constraints: e.g. the optics need to be thermally decoupled from the endoscope housing. In the upcoming experimental campaign a graphite scraper element (SE), in front of the island divertor throat will be tested as a possible means to protect the divertor pumping gap edges during the transient discharge evolution. An additional imaging endoscope systems will be used for detailed observations of the plasma interactions and heat loads on the SE and high resolution measurements at one of the divertors.
Diagnosing the density profile at the edge of high temperature fusion plasmas by accelerated Lithium beam is a known technique since decades. By knowledge of the relevant atomic physics rate coefficients the plasma electron density profile can be calculated from the relatively calibrated light profile along the beam. Several additional possibilities have already been demonstrated: CXRS for ion temperature/flow, Zeeman polarimetry for edge plasma current therefore the Li-beam diagnostic offers a wealth of information at the plasma edge. The weakness of the method is the relatively faint light signal, background light and technical difficulties of the beam injector which usually seriously limit the applicability. In this talk we present systematic developments in alkali-beam diagnostics (Li, Na) both for the injector, observation system and detectors which resulted in strongly increased capabilities. Advanced systems have been built and microsecond scale density profile, turbulence and zonal flow measurement demonstrated. A novel edge current measurement technique has also been designed and demonstrated with potentially microsecond-scale time resolution. Additional possibilities of these advanced systems for spectral measurements (CXRS, various Zeeman schemes) are also outlined.
Confocal laser induced fluorescence (LIF) is a novel diagnostic technique that requires only a single optical port. The confocal technique has recently been used to successfully measure ion velocity distribution functions (IVDFs) in argon with comparable spatial localization to conventional, i.e. intersecting, optical configurations at short distances (f = 15 cm). We demonstrate the extension of the confocal LIF technique to focal lengths up to 50 cm with localization < 1 cm. We present measurements of Zeeman split Ar-I and Ar-II VDFs, parallel to the background magnetic field, in a conventionally inaccessible region: the interior of the antenna of a high-density helicon source. In addition to the VDF data that LIF provides, these measurements demonstrate a diagnostic technique for acquiring localized, non-perturbative measurements of magnetic field vector components in difficult to diagnose regions, such as in the edge of fusion-relevant experiments and in chambers where optical ports are scarce.
In order to detect the small-amplitude electron temperature fluctuation associated with the anomalous transport, a correlation ECE (CECE) diagnostic has been designed for EAST since 2016. Detailed description of the design and preliminary results of Te fluctuation measurements are presented here. An independent quasi-optical (QO) antenna was designed, which has an improved poloidal resolution (roughly 15 mm for the frequency range of the CECE diagnostic). This is essential for the CECE diagnostic, and it determines the maximum wavenumber of the detected fluctuation. The QO antenna is comprised of a flat mirror and an ellipsoidal mirror. This antenna is integrated for both the CECE diagnostic and an existing Doppler backscatter diagnostic, and the flat mirror is rotatable in the poloidal direction. The heterodyne detection part is similar to a conventional radiometer system, and a unique aspect is the application of YIG filters. The YIG filters (OMNIYIG INC) are of tunable central frequency in the frequency range of 4-18 GHz, and a 3 dB bandwidth of 100-250 MHz (central frequency dependent). This feature is very important for facilitating the radial correlation. The sensitivity of this CECE diagnostic can reach around 0.2-0.3% for a correlation analysis using 106 data points.
A new type of in-vessel Penning gauge, the Wisconsin In-Situ Penning (WISP) gauge, has been developed and successfully implemented in the Wendelstein 7-X island divertor baffle and vacuum vessel. The capacity of the quantitative measurements of the neutral household for light impurities, in particular helium, is important for tokamaks as well as stellarator divertors in order to avoid fuel dilution and radiation energy loss. Penning gauges assisted by spectroscopy are a powerful tool to obtain the total neutral pressure as well as fractional neutral pressures of specific impurities. The WISP gauge is a miniaturized Penning gauge arrangement, which exploits the ambient magnetic field of magnetic confinement fusion experiments to establish the Penning discharge. Then, in-situ spectroscopy is conducted to separate the fractional neutral pressures of hydrogen, helium and possibly also other impurities. The WISP probe head was qualified at UW Madison at 240 mT as well as at the PAX magnet at IPP Greifswald, Germany at 3 T. A power law scaling between current and pressure: I = C*Pn with n = 1.0 – 1.2 for the 240 mT case and 2.3 – 2.8 for the 3 T case was shown. Pressure measurements between several 10-2 mbar and down to 10-6 mbar were achieved, demonstrating a reliable operation range for relevant divertor and main plasma vessel pressure levels with time resolution of up to 1MHz.
Acknowledgement: This work was funded in part by the Department of Energy under grants DE-SC0014210 and from EUROfusion under grant No 633053.
A 20cm normal incidence vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) monochromator with fast time response has been developed for measuring edge impurity line emissions in the wavelength range of 300-2000Å on HL-2A tokamak. A 1200 grooves/mm concave holographic grating is adopted to the monochromator with wavelength dispersion of 4nm/mm. The effective aperture of the monochromator is f/4.5. A CEM is used as a detector and an excellent time resolution of 17µs is realized in its first performance. Wavelength calibration of the system has been done by using a hollow cathode light source with helium and argon gas in the laboratory. High S/N signals have been obtained by significantly reducing the stray light with blackened the inner surface of the vacuum chamber of the monochromator. Preliminary results by measuring the line emissions from HL-2A plasmas have been presented.
A Motional Stark Effect (MSE) diagnosis system was developed to measure the plasma current density distribution in the KSTAR tokamak. Currently, the MSE diagnostic system performs data analysis by applying Fourier transform algorithm by using the IDL (Interactive Data Language) software after measurement and digital archiving. However, in order to realize advanced plasma control aiming at the development of high performance tokamak operations, there is a demand for the MSE diagnostic system capable of real-time pitch angle measurement associated with a plasma control system (PCS). For real-time, multi-channel, and high-speed MSE data processing with high precision, an analog lock-in technique has been proposed and its feasibility has been demonstrated through the take-top tests using the photoelastic modulator. The prototype multi-channel analog lock-in system is ready for the plasma commissioning and the integration with the PCS. This work is supported by the Ministry of science and ICT in Korea.
We present our recent work on LIBS for surface analysis to better understand complicated plasma-material interactions. We have invented a novel technique, spatially-offset double-pulse (SODP) LIBS, for thin film measurements [1]. In this technique, two laser spots on a material surface are spatially offset by a few mm, while there is no spatial gap for the standard collinear DP-LIBS. Compared to DP-LIBS, SODP-LIBS obtains a higher signal intensity and a better depth resolution. A new calibration-based method has been developed to measure the film thickness thinner than the ablation rate [2]. It has been demonstrated that a small fraction (~3.3%) of Re, the main product of neutron-induced transmutation of W, in W is successfully quantified using the calibration-free LIBS method. This will enable us to evaluate neutron damage to W and also to estimate the neutron fluence to W from the fraction of Re in fusion reactors. Development of a LIBS system for in-situ surface analysis during plasma exposure at the PISCES-A linear plasma device is ongoing. Preliminary results will be presented at the conference.
[1] D. Nishijima et al., Spectrochimica Acta Part B 124 (2016) 82.
[2] D. Nishijima et al., Spectrochimica Acta Part B 136 (2017) 34.
The ns-Gated Laser Entrance Hole (G-LEH) diagnostic take time-resolved gated images along a single line-of-sight by incorporating a high-speed multi-frame CMOS x-ray imager developed by Sandia National Laboratories into the existing Static X-ray Imager diagnostic at NIF. It was expected to capture two laser-entrance-hole images per shot on its 1024x448 pixel photo-detector array, with integration times as short as 2 ns per frame. Recent off-line calibrations of the diagnostic revealed the detailed characteristics including the temporal response and gain uniformity. Based on this measurement, new configurations have been developed to take advantages of the detector response, providing 4-8 interleaved frames per experiment. These designs have greatly enhanced the diagnostic capabilities in terms of data return. This presentation will summarize the diagnostic improvements as well as the data obtained from a variety of physics campaigns on plasma evolution in hohlraums including the dynamic evolution of the laser entrance hole, the growth of the laser-heated gold plasma bubble, the change in brightness of inner beam spots. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by LLNS, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC52- 07NA27344.
The X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer (XICS) for the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device has been actively applying to investigate core toroidal rotation and ion temperature characteristics from helium-like argon spectra since 2009. The XICS system is an important diagnostic for intrinsic toroidal rotation studies for KSTAR because it does not need any external momentum inputs but need a tiny amount of trace Ar gas-puffing. Although the XICS system is ideally suited for not only intrinsic rotation measurements but also all types of auxiliary heating sources it requires a precise calibration for the toroidal rotation since the absolute wavelength calibration for the XICS diagnostic is very difficult. In this presentation, the detail calibration method and procedure, and noticeable characteristics of toroidal rotation from various plasma discharges will be investigated.
The in-vessel neutron flux monitor equipped with Microfission Chambers (MFCs) are exposed to the extreme ITER environment, such as high radiation and high electromagnetic (EM) forces. Therefore, the in-vessel components need to withstand such ITER environment. In this study, various analyses and tests have been carried out for the in-vessel components to show that they can be applied for ITER. Soundness verification tests such as high-temperature and noise immunity tests showed that the MFCs can be operated under high temperature up to 550C and have the noise resistance in the ITER condition. Neutronic and EM analysis also showed the in-vessel components can withstand high radiation and EM forces due to disruption events. An electrical feedthrough is one of the most important components of the MFC because it forms vacuum and tritium boundaries of ITER tokamak. Structural analyses for expected accidents suggested that the fire accident is the most severe accident. However, it was shown that thermal stress on the feedthrough due to the fire accident can be lower than its allowable stress by designing the feedthrough appropriately. Above results indicate that the in-vessel components of the MFC can be used in the extreme ITER environments without any replacements.
We simulate the measurement performance of the ITER Plasma Position Reflectometry low-field side in-vessel system using a synthetic broadband Ordinary Mode Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave reflectometer implemented with REFMUL, a 2D Finite-Difference Time-Domain full-wave Maxwell code. These simulations take into account the system’s location within the vessel as well as its plasma access constraints. Two plasma cases are considered: a baseline scenario with Q=10 and a low-density He plasma. Due to the lack of data in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL) region, the SOL profiles are extrapolated from the core plasma data using two different decay lengths. To weight the influences of Bragg backscattering and forward scattering due to turbulence, we use data with both low- and high-wavenumber spectra with linear and non-linear radial distributions of the amplitude.
K-shell x-ray spectra of Li- to H-like ions have long been used to determine plasma conditions. The ratio of integrated line intensities is used to determine the temperature. At the density of Non-LTE plasmas (ne ~1021) the K-shell spectrum is not very sensitive to density. We propose using the L-shell emission of open L-shell ions (C- to Li-like) as an alternative to determine both temperature and density of NLTE plasmas. First, the L-shell models of a mid-Z material need to be verified against the temperatures obtained using a K-shell spectrum of a low-Z material. A buried layer platform is being developed at the OMEGA laser to study the open L-shell spectra of Non-LTE plasmas of mid-Z materials. Studies have been done using a 250 µm diameter dot composed of a layer of 1200 Å thick Zn between two 600 Å thick layers of Ti, in the center of a 1000 µm diameter, 13 µm thick beryllium tamper. Lasers heat the target from both sides for up to 3 ns. The size of the emitting volume vs time was measured with x‐ray imaging (face-on and side-on) to determine density. The temperature was measured from the Ti K-shell spectra. The use of this platform for the verification of atomic L-shell models is discussed.
Conventional silicon detectors are used due to the availability of good quality homogeneous material, high charge carrier transport properties and their radiation hardness. Silicon detectors will be an important tool to understand the plasma physics in future fusion reactors thanks to their excellent spectroscopic and particle diagnostics performances in harsh environments. The international fusion community will benefit from the large experience accumulated in the last years within the CERN’s very-high-luminosity experiments, which has developed new kinds of radiation-hardened silicon sensors able to withstand fluences of 10E17 neutrons/cm2. The requirements at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN have pushed today’s silicon tracking detectors to the very edge of the current technology, the detectors must be ultra-radiation hard, provide a fast and efficient charge collection and be as thin as possible. In this poster, I will report recent results from CERN RD50 collaboration, which is aiming to provide detector technologies, which are able to operate safely and efficiently in such an environment.
COMPASS is a compact-sized tokamak operated at IPP Prague. A heterodyne radiometer is available for electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics, originally employed for electron Bernstein wave emission (EBE). Recently, extensive runaway electron (RE) experiments motivated enhancements of suprathermal electron diagnostics, which have been so far focused on runaway losses [O. Ficker et al., NF 2017]. A new passive diagnostic using the ECE heterodyne radiometer has been designed and utilized. Simulations using the SPECE code [D. Farina et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 2008], which aided to the final diagnostic design, are presented. The radiometer antenna is oriented vertically and thus measures along the line of a constant toroidal magnetic field. This setup yields information about the electron velocity distribution and its time evolution. The detected signal can be attributed to the 3rd harmonic emission from 50 – 140 keV electrons. First results of extraordinary and ordinary mode (X/O mode) measurements in low-density, optically thin plasma (ne<3×10^19 m^-3) is presented. A correlation between vertical ECE diagnostic and HXR diagnostic can be observed in the data and it is also in agreement with the assumed runaway electron energies that are measurable by the two diagnostic methods.
Microparticles ranging from sub-microns to millimeter in size are common form of matter in magnetic fusion environment, which are highly mobile due to their small mass. Different forces in addition to gravity can affect their motion both inside and outside the plasmas. Several recent advances open up new diagnostic possibilities to characterize the particle motion and their forces: high-speed imaging camera technology, microparticle injection techniques developed for fusion, and image processing software. Extending our earlier work on high-temperature 4D microparticle tracking using exploding wires, we report latest results on time-resolved microparticle acceleration measurement. New particle tracking algorithm is found to be effective in particle tracking for the high particle density. Epipolar constraint is used for track-pairing from different views. Error field based on epigeometry model is characterized based on a large 2D track data set and 3D track reconstruction. Accelerations based on individual reconstructed 3D tracks are obtained. Force sensitivity on the order of one gravitational acceleration is feasible. High-speed imaging is a useful diagnostic tool for microparticle physics, computer model validation and mass injection technology development for magnetic fusion.
Mass injection has many applications in magnetic fusion as well as laboratory high-temperature plasmas. Examples include gas puffing, dust or powder injection, pellet or granule injection. Further improvement of the mass technology requires diagnostics that can characterize the dynamics of the mass interaction with plasmas. Fast imaging can be used to characterize the ionization dynamics such as the propagation of ionization front, which moves at the thermal sound or higher speed, and mixing of the neutral atoms and the ambient plasma. Multi-wavelength spectral imaging would be necessary since different parts of the plasma give different spectral signatures. Here we describe a dual-spectral imaging technique based on a monochromatic camera sensor and filters with two passing optical wavelengths. The method is compared with alternatives such as colored cameras and mono-chromatic cameras using a filter wheel. Examples of the ionization dynamics using the method are given for several plasmas.
A new Thomson scattering (TS) system is being constructed on C-2W for obtaining electron temperature and density profiles with high temporal and spatial resolution. Validating the performance of the TS’s custom designed system components is crucial to obtaining reliable Te and ne profiles of C-2W’s plasma. The diagnostic has two systems: one for measuring the central FRC, and one for measuring C-2W’s open field line jet region [1]. The custom designed collection lenses for C-2W’s TS system are made up of two doublets with image spots of all field points being within 100um radius and a fast numerical aperture (NA) of 0.24 that matches the coupling fiber bundles and polychromators. The high repetition Nd:YAG laser system can generate 4 pulses at 20kHz or 30 pulses at 1KHz with 2J per pulse. With comparison to design specification, we have examined and characterized the imaging properties of the collection lens, the focused laser beam profiles in the TS measurement region at different operating frequencies, beam pointing stability, and beam divergence.[1] K. Zhai Thomson scattering systems on C-2W field-reversed configuration plasma experiments HTPD 2018[2] T. Schindler Spectral and intensity calibration of a Thomson scattering diagnostic for the C-2W field-reversed configuration
In order to perform x-ray radiography measurements of high-opacity samples on the National Ignition Facility, we have developed a slit-projection x-ray source that is optimized to produce Bremsstrahlung x-ray emission. Unlike x-ray sources that generate characteristic atomic transition (often the 1s2 − 1s2p transition in ionized He-like atoms), but are generally limited to <30 keV x-rays (from solid targets), the design presented here optimizes for intense, broadband Bremsstrahlung radiation with energy greater than 30 keV. We present the spatial resolution of this source in a slit-projection configuration, as well as the relative intensity and effective electron temperature for a range of laser conditions. This source permits x-ray radiography through exceedingly high opacity experiments where traditional x-ray sources would be nearly completely attenuated and ineffectual.
A new laser blow-off (LBO) diagnostic was recently installed on the DIII-D tokamak to enable cutting-edge studies of both impurity and electron heat transport in reactor-relevant plasma conditions. Utilizing a high energy (up to 1.2 J), pulsed (50 Hz) Nd:YAG laser and fast, piezo-electric steering optics, this new system is capable of introducing multiple, impurity injections into a single DIII-D plasma discharge with precise timing. Control of the laser energy combined with remote control of the beam size and focus allow for arbitrary selection of both the energy density incident on coated target films and the number of ablated particles. These capabilities provide a means for efficient introduction of a wide range of target materials (Li to W) into DIII-D plasmas, enabling the study of trace, non-intrinsic, low and high-Z impurity transport. Alternatively, the system can also introduce larger, perturbing amounts of impurities that can be used for cold pulse propagation studies and validation of atomic physics data. Impurities introduced via this technique will be tracked using the suite of DIII-D spectroscopic diagnostics (SXR, CER, etc.) to better understand their transport in a range of DIII-D plasma conditions. In this presentation, we will provide a detailed descriptio
Sensors that measure small 3D magnetic fields in tokamaks are susceptible to both DC and AC vacuum field pickup that must be compensated out. In this paper, we present a novel sensor compensation algorithm that uses a layered low-pass filtering technique to efficiently remove the vacuum field pickup generated by both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric coils. Given that a single technique is used to compensate the pickup from all coil systems and that the low-pass filtering is conducted in the time domain, the layered low-pass algorithm is uniquely suited for real-time processing. The algorithm was first deployed on the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) during the 2016 commissioning campaign where it was successfully used to perform both offline and real-time locked mode identification. The offline version of the algorithm has since been tested on the DIII-D tokamak where high-spectral-content training shots are shown to improve the compensation of poloidal-field-coil-induced pickup. The cross-device portability of the algorithm demonstrates that it can broadly address the challenge of real-time magnetic sensor compensations in tokamaks. This work is supported by DoE contracts DE-AC02-09CH11466 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
Recently, the high frequency Thomson scattering diagnostic system has been upgraded on EAST tokamak, with a temporal resolution up to 4kHz by using a newly designed 1064nm Nd:YAG (neodymium - yttrium aluminium garnet) laser. The laser can fire 10 pulses within one burst at a frequency of 0.5Hz. Each pulse has ~3J power, with a deviation of less than 10%. By using a single laser instead of combining several lasers, the positional accuracy was improved and the Thomson scattering system can work for a longer time with a higher frequency. Furthermore, the stray light was suppressed, and the S/N (Signal to Noise) was improved by more than 10% while the spatial resolution was increased to 3mm in minor radius. These upgraded can promote the advanced physical researches on EAST, such as ELM migration, L-H transition, etc.
The infrared (IR) part of the DIII-D IR/visible periscope viewing system has been modified for choice of magnification of 1X or 3X (for improved spatial resolution of selected areas such as the upper divertor). No modifications were made to in-vacuum or visible components. The 3X field of view is set by re-aiming one mirror. This allows any part of the 1X view to be examined at 3X magnification. An adjustable camera mount was integrated on a baseplate with a fixed final lens cell (1X or 3X) on a kinematic base and a remote-controlled moveable focusing lens cell. The final and moveable cells were mounted to the baseplate and aligned in an optical lab to insure co-linearity. A new IR camera was installed that allows frame rates up to 1000 Hz at 640 by 512 pixels, and has an integrated filter wheel for neutral density and wavelength filters. Optical and mechanical design will be shown, with results from the installed system. *Work supported by U.S. DOE under DE-AC52-07NA27344 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
For the purpose of time-resolved triton burnup measurements in the KSTAR deuterium plasmas, an NE213 liquid scintillation detector has been installed and operated during the 2017 KSTAR campaign. The detector is composed of a 2-inch diameter NE213 scintillator and a photomultiplier tube (PMT). The PMT pulse signal is processed by the data acquisition system of which the field programmable gate array circuit and the pulse processing software can discriminate the pulse signals from gamma-ray and neutron. In order to achieve a good neutron and gamma-ray discrimination performance, the maximum count rate was retained under 10^5 counts per seconds by shielding the scintillator with 5 cm thick lead blocks and 20 cm thick borated polyethylene blocks. To determine an appropriate threshold level of 14 MeV neutron signal resulting from triton burnup, the NE213 scintillation detector has been calibrated by the 2.5 MeV neutron source in NFRI and the Intense 14 MeV Neutron Source Facility, OKTAVIAN, of Osaka University, Japan. The operation result is compared with the parameters related to the triton birth and confinement characteristics of KSTAR deuterium plasmas, e.g. 2.5 MeV neutron emission rate, plasma current, and electron Coulomb collision time.
Inertial Confined Fusion (ICF) is undergoing more detailed research to increase neutron yield, and will require high resolution pictures taken at short distances close to the target. Radiation hard diagnostic instruments are needed. For a future 1E18 neutron yield shot, a camera placed at 10 cm away from the target will be subject to 1E15 neutrons/cm2 fluence, which can damage Si devices. We have demonstrated that GaN materials and devices have exceptional neutron radiation hardness. We have been systematically testing neutron radiation effects in GaN devices and materials at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center with elevated neutron fluence levels and broader neutron energy spectrum. In 2016-2018 run cycles, we have irradiated GaN materials and devices up to 1E16 neutrons/cm2 fluence for fast neutrons. The irradiated samples included GaN substrates, AlN grown on sapphire, AlGaN UVLED with various Al contents, and GaN HEMT. GaN devices have shown excellent radiation hardness. Activation level permitting, we have characterized electrical performances of GaN device before and after irradiation. No substantial degradation was observed. Our experiments established the GaN devices as a radiation hard platform technology for the breakeven ICF diagnostics.
High-temperature, atmospheric pressure plasma systems operated in molecular gases present complex diagnostic challenges. Infrared spectroscopy has been used to make measurements of the absorbance spectrum of complex molecular gas mixtures, and thereby calculate the concentrations and species temperatures in these systems. For high-pressure systems, high spatial gradients arise and high spatial-resolution measurements are thus desirable. Some systems have achieved increased spatial resolution by reducing the source aperture size. However, this increase in spatial resolution comes at the expense of the optical throughput. Here we propose modifying a commercial Fourier Transform, Infrared spectrometer system with a set of simple optical elements to achieve high spatial resolution scannable absorbance spectrum measurements of a complex molecular gas mix. We design such a system for a high-pressure plasma torch with diameter 1cm to achieve a spatial resolution of less than 1mm. This design improves the signal-to-noise ratio relative to reducing the source aperture size while transmitting nearly all of the source power.
[1] B.C. Stratton, et al., Plasma Chem. Plasma Proc. 19 (1999) 191.
The Aerogel Cherenkov Detector for Cygnus (ACD/C) is a time-dependent, x-ray spectral detector that uses SiO2 aerogels spanning an index of refraction (n = 1.02 – 1.07) corresponding to a 1.1 – 2.3 MeV x-ray energy threshold appropriate for pulsed power x-ray sources like Cygnus and Mercury. Aerogels sit between the capability of gas (> 3 MeV) and solids such as glass (0.3 MeV). The detector uses an aluminum converter to Compton scatter incoming x-rays and create relativistic electrons, which produce Cherenkov light in an aerogel or glass medium. The light is then coupled through parabolic mirrors to a photomultiplier located off axis of the incoming beam. ACD/C was fielded at the Naval Research Laboratory when Mercury was tuned to produce up to 5 MeV x-ray. Despite a high radiation and radio interference background, ACD/C was able to achieve high signal over noise across five aerogel densities and glass. ACDC observed time-resolved rise and fall times for different energy thresholds of the photon spectrum. Monte-Carlo (ACCEPT code) simulations of ACD/C’s aerogel response curves were folded with theoretical Mercury’s photon energy spectrums and agree within error to the observed result. The details of the Mercury run with ACD/C will be presented and discussed at the meeting.
High-temperature, atmospheric-pressure plasma systems operated in molecular gases present complex diagnostic challenges. Schlieren imaging is a technique that can be used to quantitatively measure the density of a gas stream through interpretation of directly-measured deflections from a collimated light source. The presence of hydrodynamic shocks presents a unique challenge to the accuracy of these measurements due to the wide dynamic range needed from the instrument. Schlieren imaging systems can achieve wide instrument ranges or high-accuracy measurements through adjustment of the aperture-cutoff, but achieving both simultaneously requires high-bit depth sensors. An alternative method is to make use of an optical offset system. A schlieren system has been designed with a large-area, rotatable wedge prism that produces an angle-dependent offset at the schlieren analyzer. With the use of a knife-edge analyzer, the system depends only on one component of the offset. In this manner, a high-accuracy measurement region can be “scanned” through a wider range, effectively increasing the dynamic range of the instrument without the use of a high-bit depth detector. Design and operation of the system using a 100mm, 900 arcsec. wedge prism is shown.
We present a method for direct measurement of DC conductivity of warm dense matter using single-shot terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (SS-THz-TDS). SS-THz-TDS is a promising tool for characterizing properties of materials undergoing irreversible changes (e.g. the complex refractive index or conductivity). Furthermore, as the period of THz pulses is slow compared to the expected electron-electron collision time, THz pulses can be considered effectively constant and hence probe the near-DC properties of materials. The drawback to this is the low signal-to-noise ratio. Maximizing this is important for studies of irreversible processes with small signals or modulation. Our investigation focuses on a method for balancing shot-to-shot fluctuations of single-shot THz measurements based on (a) simultaneous detection of single-shot traces, and (b) the use of correlation functions. The method is compared to the state of the art polarization-gated balancing scheme. We use our technique to determine the conductivity of a gold thin film using a transmission configuration. Finally, we present preliminary results on laser heated gold films.
The D3He backlighter platform, based on laser-driven implosions of D3He-filled capsules, generates mono-energetic 14.7-MeV and 3.0-MeV protons and has been used with success on OMEGA and the NIF for both radiography and stopping-power studies. We now propose a tri-particle mono-energetic backlighter based on a DT3He gas-filled capsule implosion that will provide 14.7-MeV and 3.0-MeV protons plus 9.5-MeV deuterons from the T3He reaction. This third particle is important for both backlighting and stopping experiments, and will result in high-quality radiographs of E and B fields and plasma matter. To obtain acceptable signal to background ratios for all three particles, the D:T:3He ratio will be optimized through extrapolation from existing T3He data and experiments on OMEGA. T and 3He will dominate the fuel to maximize the T3He deuteron yield. Relevant to this work, recent experiments on OMEGA (2017/07/12) had T3He yields >1e9, meeting the requirements of radiography and stopping power. This work explores the capabilities of the proposed platform, the CR39 detection configuration, and optimization of the fuel ratio. This work is supported by LLNL (B613027, B615534), NLUF (DE-NA0002035), LLE (415935-G).
Since the beginning of National Ignition Campaign, Gamma Reaction History (GRH) detector at the National Ignition Facility has been providing a fusion bang time, a burn width, as well as the areal density of the compressed carbon-based ablator. The emission of 12C(n, n’) gamma rays from the carbon-based ablator is proportional to the ablator areal density. The gamma-ray based areal density measurement is unique because the gamma-ray emission is spatially isotropic, providing a shell-averaged areal density. A carbon-ablator areal density already helped to constrain a diagnostic simulation model for National Ignition Campaign. However, the current GRH-based carbon areal density measurement has a large uncertainty due to being convolved with both the carbon gammas and background gammas induced from the hohlraum and its thermo-mechanical package. By comparing campaigns that have non-carbon ablators, such as the Beryllium campaign, we can qualify the background gamma signal and validate our background subtraction model. We will apply the improved carbon-ablator areal density analysis to implosion campaigns including High-Foot, High-Density-Carbon and will compare implosion characteristics such as mic, between carbon-based capsule implosions.
Measurement of DD fusion neutrons is a key diagnostic for magnetized target fusion (MTF) experiments being conducted at General Fusion. When combined with other available diagnostics, the detection of DD fusion neutrons can provide strong constraints on a model of plasma evolution during compression, in particular ion temperature and density. General Fusion plasma compression experiments have been monitored for high-energy particle emission using hydrocarbon liquid scintillator systems of a variety of designs. Scintillator output is digitized at high resolution over the course of the compression shot (3 ms record length). This is followed by offline digital analysis of pulse height and shape of particle detection events. Pulse shape discrimination methods with sufficient accuracy and energy resolution enable separation of neutron detection events from high-energy photon detection events. Inferred DD fusion rates are found to be consistent with other diagnostics and simulations. Scintillator hardware, data analysis and modeling methods will be discussed, as well as experimental results.
External plasma heating and current drive systems are vital for magnetically confined fusion devices. These systems rely on exciting wave electric fields (10’s MHz to 100’s GHz) near the scrape off layer by use of an antenna or waveguide structure. Ion Cyclotron (IC), Lower Hybrid (LH), and Electron Cyclotron (EC) range of frequency waves have been quite successfully in fulfilling their purpose, however, each scheme has experienced its own unique issues stemming from parasitic interactions with the edge plasma. In an effort to identify the underlying physics and provide a path towards mitigation, a diagnostic capable of direct comparison with first principles full-wave simulations was designed. The diagnostic is based on measurement of Dß spectra in the edge plasma using polarized optical emission spectroscopy. The wave electric field vector is then determined by systematically fitting the Schrödinger equation, containing both magnetic and electric field operators, to orthogonally polarized Dß spectral line profiles. Experimental results obtained from an RF sheath test stand (IC), Tore Supra (LH) and Alcator C-Mod (LH) will be presented. Additionally, future diagnostic plans for the RF sheath test stand (IC), WEST (LH) and DIII-D (LH and EC) will be discussed.
Matter in the warm, dense regime (T~1-100 eV; ρ~0.01-10 g/cc) is often challenging to diagnose on the timescales of its evolution. For example, matter isochorically heated by a sub-picosecond laser or laser-driven proton beam can rise in temperature by 100 eV over a timescale of ps to 10s of ps, motivating development of sub-ps time-resolved measurement techniques. Here we describe a pump-probe X-ray absorption spectroscopy temperature measurement technique. It is shown using atomic modeling simulations that the energy and optical depth of bound-bound and bound-free transitions in various low-Z materials are highly sensitive to temperature in the range of 10 to >100 eV. A backlighter source suitable for the technique was developed using a range of laser parameters with pulse duration ≤5 ps and various pure and alloyed materials.This work was performed under the auspices of the Department of Energy through the Fusion Energy Sciences HEDLP program under grant award number DE-SC0014600.
We have begun using a new generation of compact and high-speed hybrid-CMOS digital framing cameras to make time-resolved measurements of the laser heating phase of Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) experiments. In the MagLIF target concept, a preheated, magnetized, deuterium-filled Be cylinder is compressed using magnetic direct drive from high-current pulsed power devices such as Sandia’s Z-machine. In the experiments reported here, we use the multi-kJ Z-Beamlet laser to heat an underdense gas-cell target. We employ multiple soft x-ray pinhole cameras with axial and side-on lines-of-sight to measure the absolute soft x-ray emission distribution with up to 8 temporally separated images per experiment for each pinhole camera. We also use an 8-frame optical shadowgraphy diagnostic to measure the evolution of the expanding blast wave driven by the laser-heated plasma channel. This combination of x-ray and optical measurements enables us to determine the axial energy and radial temperature distributions for a variety of gas-cell target and laser illumination configurations. Sandia is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell Int, Inc, for the U.S. DOE’s NNSA under contract DE-NA0003525.
The lithium vapor box divertor is a concept for handling the extreme divertor heat fluxes in magnetic fusion devices. In a baffled slot divertor, plasma interacts with a dense cloud of Li vapor which radiates and cools the plasma, leading to recombination and detachment. Before testing on a tokamak the concept should be validated: we plan to study detachment and heat redistribution by a Li vapor cloud in laboratory experiments. Mass changes and temperatures are measured to validate a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo model [1] of neutral Li. The initial apparatus and experiment is a 3 cm radius steel box containing 10g of Li held at 650°C as vapor flows out a wide nozzle into a similarly-sized box at a lower temperature. Diagnosis is made challenging by the required material compatibility with lithium vapor. Vapor pressure is exponential with temperature, so to validate mass flow models to within 10%, absolute temperature to within 3.6K is required. The apparatus is designed to be used with an analytical balance to determine mass transport. Details of the apparatus and methods of temperature and mass flow measurements are presented.
This work supported by U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC02-09CH11466.
[1] M.A Gallis et al., AIP Conference Proceedings 1628, 27 (2014); doi:10.1063/1.4902571.
Studying the optical conductivity of strongly coupled plasma as function of density is important to understand and model warm dense matter [1]. In high-intensity ultrafast laser excited solids, self-similar plasma expansion occurs in picosecond time scale after the sample is molten, resulting in steepened density gradients [2]. Here we report a new method combining single-shot frequency domain interferometry (FDI) [3] and reflectivity/transmissivity [4] measurements to probe the expanding plasma. The measured observables are dictated by the profile of the conductivity gradient. Such measurements will provide important tests to theoretical simulations of optical conductivities as a function of plasma densities [5-8].
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We are developing an experimental platform at the NIF to measure x-ray Thomson scattering (XRTS) spectra from indirectly-driven capsule implosions [1]. Recent efforts focus on measuring XRTS at scattering angles as small as 30 degrees, where the spectra become sensitive to collective excitations (plasmons). Such measurements provide improved sensitivity to temperature, and also show promise to obtain information on collision rates. One key requirement is to improve the spectral resolution of the measurement by reducing the spectral bandwidth of the x-ray source. Here, we take advantage of the fact the the Cu K-edge at 8.975 keV is located exactly between the two lines of the Zn He-alpha doublet. We use two NIF quads to produce He-like emission from a thermal Zn plasma, which is then filtered by a Cu foil, located at 1.5 mm from the Zn foil. We will discuss first x-ray source tests and potential heating sources that could impact the efficiency of the K-edge filtering.
*This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and supported by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Grant No. 18-ERD-033.
[1] D. Kraus et al., J. Phys.: Conf. Series 717, 012067 (2016).
Since 2010, an in-vessel calibration light source (ICLS) has been used periodically on JET to calibrate a range of diagnostics at UV, visible and IR wavelengths. During shutdowns, the ICLS (essentially an integrating sphere) is positioned within the vacuum vessel by the remote handling (RH) system. Following the 2013 run, several changes were made to improve the efficiency and quality of calibrations. Among these: the replacement of a heavy 20 m cable which carried power and other electrical signals through a vessel port to/from a control cubicle. A lightweight 2 m cable now plugs directly into a connector on the “chest” of the RH manipulator, greatly reducing the time required for deployment and improving operational flexibility. This change also provides compatibility with calibrations after high neutron-fluence campaigns. To improve repeatability and accuracy, new baffles were designed and installed within the integrating sphere itself, greatly improving the uniformity at non-normal viewing angles (this was necessary due to orientation uncertainties with the RH system); calibrations which had shown variations as great as ~ 20% are now consistent to ~ 5%. In addition, an on-board micro-spectrometer now allows for real-time verification of the emitted spectrum.
A new gas puff(GP) and supersonic molecular beam(SMB) imaging diagnostic system has been developed on HL-2A tokamak to study plasma turbulence and transport dynamics of supersonic molecular beam injection(SMBI) fueling at the edge and scrape-off layer(SOL) of HL-2A tokamak. A specially designed telescope and a high-speed camera are used to observe and record the emission from the neutral gas cloud, typically helium or deuterium. The brightness and contrast of the two-dimensional(2-D) radial vs poloidal sequential images reveal the structures of the turbulence or the interaction between the supersonic molecular beam and plasma. Neutral helium or deuterium gas is puffed into the plasma from a rectangular multi-capillary nozzle or the SMBI nozzle. The diagnostic system was put into service during the latest two campaigns under various discharge modes, including ohmic, L-mode and H-mode. Some experimental results, including 2-D profiles of radial velocity, poloidal velocity and skewness of the fluctuation intensity, and the penetration and deposition of the SMB, will be introduced during HTPD2018 in San Diego.
As the H-mode plasma can be maintained for a long time in KSTAR, the inner wall temperature is increased by the heat flux from the plasma. The increased temperature causes damage to the inner wall. The input power of the heat flux and the heating device concentrates in one place, and the local temperature rise may occur, which is a very dangerous factor for maintaining the plasma stably. Therefore, there is a need for a system capable of monitoring the locally rising the temperature(hot spot). Conventional temperature monitoring devices are mostly used the thermocouple, which are not only slow to respond to, but also unsuitable for monitoring of the hot spot. Therefore, a temperature monitoring system using an IR camera capable of measuring the local temperature at a high speed is required. In this paper, we propose a conceptual design of a suitable surveillance system that can be used in KSTAR devices.
In the ITER Core Plasma Thomson Scattering the scattered light collection optics system is installed both inside and outside the diagnostic port under vacuum. The length of the optical path (~6 m) and the need to shield the neutron and γ radiation increased the complexity of the system with the inclusion of multiple dog-legs, forcing the use of many elements with optical power.
Multiple rounds of design have been required in order to satisfy iteratively the system requirements in terms of resolution, aberration, and shielding. The adoption of quasi-free-form reflective surfaces for several mirrors eventually allowed the correct compromise between all conflicting requirements
Charge-exchange spectroscopy on JET has become particularly challenging with the introduction of the ITER-like wall. The impurity spectra are weaker and contaminated by many tungsten lines. We have therefore upgraded the instrumentation to allow the simultaneous measurement of impurity and fuel-ion charge exchange by splitting the light between two pairs of imaging spectrometers using dichroic beam splitters. Imaging instruments allow us to stack 11x1 mm fibres on the entrance slits without crosstalk. CCD cameras were chosen to have 512x512 pixels to allow frame transfer times <0.2 ms which with shortest exposure times of 5 ms gives tolerable smearing even without a chopper. The image plane is optically demagnified to 0.5x to match the sensor size of these cameras. Because the image plane of the spectrometer is tilted, the CCD must also be tilted to maintain focus over the spectrum (Scheimpflug condition). To avoid transverse keystoning causing tilting of the spectra the configuration is furthermore designed to be telecentric by a suitable choice of the lens separation. The lens configuration is assembled almost entirely from commercial off-the-shelf components, which allowed it to be assembled and aligned relatively rapidly to meet the deadline for installation.
1D 5-μm FWHM spatially resolved high resolution x-ray spectroscopy is needed to diagnose HEDP plasmas with large temperature and density gradients. Magnification is required to overcome the 50-100 μm detector resolution. Experiments with spherical crystals in a sagittally focusing geometry demonstrated ~12 μm resolution. New experiments will attempt to achieve the theoretical limit. To avoid source-size broadening, a modified Johann configuration is being developed, with the source inside the Rowland circle, close to the crystal, and the detector on the Rowland circle. A quasi-toroidal crystal with minor radius varying along the crystal axis [M. Bitter et al., this conf.] will achieve sagittal focusing at all energies. Initial applications are EXAFS experiments on NIF. Proof of principle experiments will be presented. *Performed under the auspices of the U.S. DoE by Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. under contract DE-AC02-09CH11466 and by Lawrence Livermore National Lab. under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344
CTS diagnostic is a strong tool to measure the ion temperature, fast ion distribution function, and fueling ratio. We have already developed the 77 GHz CTS system, and reported that the obtained CTS spectra responded reasonably according to the ion temperature. The CTS spectrum originated from fast ion is also compared with the simulation result. The result explained the anisotropy of CTS spectrum caused by fast ions. However, the probe beam with the frequency of 77 GHz begins to deflect and cut off by the electron density below 10^{20} m^{-3}. Therefore, new 154 GHz CTS system has been developed with the probe and receive beam with the frequency of 154 GHz. The CTS receiver is a type of heterodyne detection. The RF side containing a notch filter and a mixer, and a local oscillator of the 77 GHz CTS system are replaced with the components for 154 GHz system, and the components of the intermediate frequency side remains. Although the signal level for 154 GHz scattered radiation is much lower than that for 77 GHz one from the theoretical calculations, we could obtain the CTS spectra for 154 GHz successfully. In the rich D or rich H plasma, the experimental CTS spectrum for D ions is broader than that for H ions with the ion temperature of 1keV. zThe result is attractive for a react
The X-ray imaging crystal spectroscopy system installation has been completed for WEST operation. The system aims at providing spatially resolved and high accuracy measurements of ion and electron temperatures, toroidal and poloidal rotation velocities, as well as impurity densities. It consists of three viewing lines hence three spectrometers imaging the full plasma height. Line emission from H-like Argon, He-like Argon and He-like Iron are measured. Optimized throughput and sensitivity are achieved using large spherically bent crystals (up to 80 mm × 120 mm) with appropriate choices of materials, cuts, reflectivity and focusing conditions, the Bragg angles being about 54°. For each spectrometer, the plasma to crystal distance is ~6.7 m, the crystal to detector distance is ~2 m and the magnification is ~0.3. Also, the detector position is fixed, orientated horizontally and tangential to the Rowland circle. In this paper, a detailed description of the instrument is presented, including the specific and unique crystal rotary table developed with absolute indication and reproducibility of rad. The spectrometer alignment procedure is also discussed, and first analyses of the core spectrometer performance on plasma are presented and compared to predictions.
For the use of impurity transport studies a new laser blow-off system was designed and installed on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. Basically, the system is able to inject impurity tracer ions in a controlled manner with a repetition frequency of 20 Hz. In particular, a Nd:YAG laser (1 J, 1064 nm) hits a glass plate inside the torus from behind which is coated on the plasma facing side. The optical path of the laser beam was previously determined and designed by means of ray tracing. The injected amount can be controlled by changing the spot diameter and the spot position on the glass target between laser pulses. The ablation process can be monitored with a monochromatic charge-coupled device (CCD) camera showing the reflection of a visible diode laser at 650 nm which is aligned with the high energy laser. The emission of excited particles in the plasma, measured by the EICAM system, reveals information about the beam quality and in parts the velocity of the ablated particle beam which consists of very fast atoms and slower clusters for the used laser energy density. During the second operation phase of W7-X this system was able to inject a sufficient amount of tracer ions which was successfully observed by spectrometers measuring from the X-ray to the XUV spectral range.
Gamma ray spectroscopy with high energy and time resolutions is developed on EAST tokamak to study fast ion and runaway electron behaviours. The energy resolution of the spectroscopy is about 3.9% @ 662 keV based on the LaBr3(Ce) scintillator crystal, and the spectroscopy can operate stably at counting rate as high as 2 MHz, monitored by the monitoring system based on two independent light emitting diodes (LED) which send light pulses via optical ?bers to the spectroscopy. The spectroscopy is calibrated by means of photon sources, then unfolding of pulse height spectra of the spectroscopy is performed. The results proved this spectroscopy with high energy and time resolutions can be used to reconstruct the distribution functions of fast ions and runaway electrons. First results from this gamma ray spectroscopy in EAST experiments is given.
In order to improve both the density and particularly the temporal resolution beyond previous dispersion interferometers (DI), a heterodyne technique based on an acousto-optic (AO) cell has been added to the DI. A 40 MHz drive frequency for the AO cell allows density fluctuation measurements into the MHz range. A CO2 laser based heterodyne DI (HDI) was installed on DIII-D. The total beam path length is approximately 100 m, and a feedback alignment system originally developed for the ITER TIP prototype [1] was found to be essential for reliable HDI operation. It is demonstrated that the HDI is capable of tracking the density evolution throughout DIII-D discharges, including disruption events and other rapid transient phenomena. The data also show good agreement with independent density measurements obtained with the existing DIII-D two-color interferometer. The HDI line-integrated density resolution sampled over a 1s interval is ~9×10^17 m-2. Density fluctuations induced by MHD instabilities are also successfully measured by the HDI and will be presented. This work was supported by US-Japan Fusion Collaboration Program FP5-3 (2015) and FP5-8 (2016), as well as U.S. DOE under DE-FC02-06ER54875 and DE-FC02-08ER54972. [1] M.A. Van Zeeland et. al., PPCF 59, 125005 (2017).
We have developed a platform on Z for the study of photoionized plasmas (G. Loisel et al., PRL 119, (2017)). These experiments have measured, for the first time in the laboratory, the radiative recombination continuum (RRC) from photoionized plasma that is used by astronomers to determine the temperature of accretion-powered plasmas around compact objects. As an example, the RRC from H- and He-like states in Vela X-1 and Cygnus X-3 has been used to infer accreted plasma temperatures in 4-70 eV, thus confirming photoionization. Faint RRC emission from H-like to He-like silicon along with the He-like np-1s (up to n=14) series were observed in Z data. Simultaneously, the temperature is inferred from recorded absorption spectrum under the partial LTE assumption. This unique combination provides a test on the accuracy of the partial LTE assumption and the accuracy of the RRC technique when potential line blending, line broadening and continuum lowering could affect the slope of the continuum. We discuss how these techniques could benefit a wider range of high energy density plasmas. ++ Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. DOE’s NNSA under contract DE-NA0003525
A plasma-density diagnostic consisting of a Wollaston interferometer is presented for use in the measurement of plasma plumes created in experiments on the OMEGA EP laser. The diagnostic is installed as an additional arm on the 4-omega probe system, a suite of diagnostics that share a 10-ps pulse of 263-nm laser light captured by an imaging system of cone angle f/4. In order to form fringes, the interferometer utilizes a Wollaston prism to create two orthogonally polarized wavefronts from a single beam. These two wavefronts form overlapping images from separate regions in space, yielding an interference pattern indicative of changes in plasma density in one region relative to the other. Initial results will be presented in which this system has been used to characterize radially symmetric plasma densities in the ablation of flat plastic targets. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
Charge-coupled device (CCD) is widely used as a detector of vacuum spectrometers in fusion devices. Recently, deuterium plasma experiments have been started in Large Helical Device (LHD). A lot of neutrons are produced during the D-D operation with energies of 2.45 MeV and 14.1 MeV in D-D and D-T reactions, respectively. Meanwhile, gamma rays are also radiated from plasma facing components and laboratory structural materials in a wide energy range through the neutron capture. It is well known that these neutrons and gamma rays bring serious problems to plasma diagnostic systems. Therefore, it is important to examine an effect of neutrons and gamma rays on the CCD. Several CCDs of VUV/EUV spectrometers for spectrum and spatial profile measurements installed on LHD at different locations are used to examine the effect of neutrons and gamma rays. An additional CCD placed in a special shielding box made of 10 cm thick polyethylene with 10% boron and 1.5 cm thick lead, which is located at a distance of 10 m from the LHD plasma center, is also used for detailed analysis. It is found that the CCD signal noise enhanced during D-D discharges mainly originates in the gamma rays.
Gaussian process tomography (GPT) is a recently developed tomography method within the Bayesian probability framework, applied earlier to soft X-ray (SXR) spectroscopy in the W7-AS. By modeling the SXR emissivity field in a poloidal cross-section as a Gaussian process (GP), the reconstruction can be carried out in a robust and extremely fast way. Owing to the short execution time of the algorithm, GPT is an important candidate for providing real-time information on impurity transport and for fast MHD control. In addition, the Bayesian formalism allows quantifying the uncertainty on the inferred parameters. Remarkably, GPT has shown its flexibility by providing good reconstruction results without background information about the magnetic equilibrium. Meanwhile, information about the magnetic flux surface geometry can be useful for additional regularization of the solution. In this paper, we developed a way to take into account the equilibrium information, by constructing a covariance matrix of the prior GP depending on the flux surface geometry. The GPT method is validated using synthetic SXR emissivity profiles relevant to WEST plasmas, and compares favorably with the classical algorithm based on minimization of the Fisher information.
A tangential soft x-ray crystal spectrometer (XCS) has been designed for ADITYA-U Tokamak to measure plasma toroidal rotation velocity using Doppler shift of the spectral line radiation emitted from the plasma. The electron temperature can also be derived from the intensity ratio of a dielectronic satellite line to the resonance line. For this purpose, X-ray spectral line at 3.945 Å from He-like Argon ion, Ar16+ is considered. The spectrometer consists of a cylindrically bent Silicon (111) crystal and a CCD detector to measure resonance spectral and its satellite lines in the wavelength region of 3.94 -4.0 Å, viewing the plasma tangentially at an angle of 26˚ with respect to the toroidal direction in the magnetic axis. Considering the relatively lower line averaged electron density (1-3.5x1019 m-3), central electron temperature (300 to 750 eV) and geometrical constraints of Aditya-U tokamak, the plasma to crystal and crystal to detector distance has been kept 1.4 and 0.5 m, respectively, to get sufficient signal intensity for study of the tokamak plasma and atomic physics. The design has been optimized after adequately addressing issues related to port geometry, machine accessibility etc. The engineering design of the crystal spectrometer together with ray-tracing is presented.
Stable confinement of high-beta (local electron beta ~ 1) is demonstrated with high-energy electrons (T_e > 10 keV) by an X-ray measurement in the RT-1 magnetospheric plasmas. A new Nd:YAG laser Thomson scattering (TS) system has been developed to investigate the mechanism of the high-beta plasma formation in the RT-1. The designed parameters for the TS system is 10 eV < T_e < 50 keV and n_e > 1.0 x 10^{17} m^{-3}. In order to obtain the sufficient amount of scattered light for the low-density plasmas, we adopted the long scattered length (60 mm) and a bright optical system with both large collection window (Φ=260 mm) and large collection lens (Φ=300 mm). The system employs a Nd:YAG laser of 1.2 J (oscillation frequency: 10 Hz) with a scattering length of 60 mm (scattering angle: 90 degrees). Scattered light is collected by one set of lens (f/2.0, NA = 0.145) with a solid angle of ~ 68 m str and guided to an interference filter polychromator through an optical fiber bundle. As a test measurement and calibration, the Raman scattering signals were successfully obtained in N_2 gas. We found that the collection optics realizes a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio above n_e ~ 10^{17} m^{-3}. We also observed that the spectrum of TS light changes with the RT-1 plasma parameters.
Phase contrast imaging (PCI) has been recently developed on HL-2A tokamak. In this article we will present the construction and calibration of this diagnostic. The system is able to diagnose the chord integral density fluctuations by measuring the phase shift of a CO2 laser beam with a wavelength of 10.6 um when passing through the plasma region vertically. There are 32 channels of HgCdTe detector array, covering the plasma region of 0.625<r/a<0.7. This diagnostic is designed to detect plasma density fluctuations with the maximum wavenumber of 15 /cm. The designed wavenumber resolution is 2 /cm restricted by the windown size and the time resolution can reach 2 us. The broad normalized wavenumber kρs ranging from 0.2 to 3 makes it suitable for turbulence measurement. The error field caused by magnetization of a large steel-made optical platform of the system on the top of HL-2A is evaluated for safety reasons. Sound waves are used to calibrate PCI diagnostic. The signal series in different PCI channels show a pronounced modulation of incident laser beam by the sound wave. Frequency-wavenumber spectrum is achieved. Calibrations by sound waves with different frequencies exhibit a maximal wavenumber response of 12 /cm.
Terahertz solid state soures have been successfully applied on an one chord interferometer system on Keda Torus eXperiemnt (KTX), a reversed field pinch machine. For exploring the capacity of microwave source for electro density profile diagnosis of magnetic confinement plasma. The one chord interferometer system has been upgraded to a multi-channel system using the same solid state sources. The optical configuration has been optimized using carefully designed light path and optical elements. The area of the platform holding the whole system including the souces and mixers has been set 3m×3m. The beam width across plasma area has been improved to less than 21mm, and the power has been uniformly distributed at all recievers for seven channels. The system has been installed on KTX machine and the results show that the maximum signal strength can research about 0.6mV and the phase noise of the intermediate frequency is about 0.0674pi, corresponding to about 0.1% of the integral electron density amplitude. The radial profiles of electron density on KTX in different discharge configurations have been reconstructed based on Abel inversion.
A suite of diagnostics was developed to measure particle and heat fluxes arriving at the divertor electrodes of the C-2W experiment at TAE Technologies. The divertor electrodes consist of 4 concentric rings, each equipped with a bolometer, electrostatic energy analyzer, and thermocouple mounted at two opposing azimuthal locations. These probes provide two independent measurements of the power flux to the divertor electrodes, as well as measurements of the ion current density, ion energy distribution, and total energy deposition. The thermocouples also provide calibration points for inferring the heat deposition profile via thermographic imaging of the electrodes with a fast infrared camera. The combined measurements enable the calculation of the energy lost per escaping electron/ion pair, which is an important metric for understanding electron heat transport in the open field lines that surround the field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma in C-2W.
Extensive work has been done to characterize and improve the smoothness of ablator materials used in inertial confinement fusion, however, features indicative of instabilities seeded from heterogeneity in these materials are still observed. A two-dimensional imaging velocimetry technique has been used on Omega (OHRV 2D-VISAR system) to measure the nonuniformity in the velocity of shock fronts launched by indirect drive in the three ablator materials of current interest, glow-discharge polymer (GDP), beryllium, and high-density carbon (HDC). We have used this experimental platform, combined with extensive pre-shot target metrology, to study the presence of shock-front perturbations. Observed features are small variations from one-dimensional evolution, but are important for fully understanding the effects of surface topography, dynamic material response, and internal heterogeneities on the stability of ICF capsules. For all three ablators we have quantified perturbations that can dominate conventional surface roughness seeds to hydrodynamic instability. This work performed was under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and by General Atomics under Contract DE-NA0001808.
The Cherenkov mechanism used in Gas Cherenkov Detectors (GCD) is exceptionally fast. However, the temporal resolution of GCDs, such as the Gamma Reaction History diagnostics (GRH) at NIF, has been limited by the current state-of-the-art photomultiplier tube (PMT) technology to ~100ps. The recently deployed Pulse Dilation Photomultiplier Tube (PD-PMT) at NIF allows for temporal resolution comparable to that of the gas cell, or ~10ps. Enhanced resolution will contribute to the quest for ignition in a crucial way through precision measurements of reaction history and areal density (ρR) history, leading to better constrained models. Features such as onset of alpha heating, shock reverberations, and burn truncation due to dynamically evolving failure modes will become visible for the first time. PD-PMT is deployed on GCD-3 at NIF. Test measurements of the PD-PMT at AWE confirmed that design goals have been met. The PD-PMT provides dilation factors of 2 to 40x in 6 increments. A synthetic PD-PMT model provides fast and simple predictions for upcoming NIF shots, and allows optimal dilation factor choice for a given experiment. Initial data from PD-PMT fielded in NIF will be presented.
Coherence Imaging Spectroscopy (CIS) has emerged as a powerful tool for investigating 2D and 3D ion phenomena in the boundary of magnetically confined fusion plasmas. With this technique, a polarization interferometer can be used to image the velocity of any ion species emitting in the visible spectrum. Two separate tangentially-viewing CIS systems are employed on DIII-D: a wide field of view system for imaging the entire plasma cross-section, and a fast framing lower-divertor system. Recently, these systems have been used to benchmark sophisticated boundary fluid modeling codes and to confirm predictions of 3D flows near magnetic islands. This talk will present the verification and validation work carried out to ensure reliable and routine CIS measurements on DIII-D. This includes the development of a tunable diode laser-based calibration technique for absolute velocity calibration including for complex spectral shapes. Additionally, the sensitivity of these interferometers has necessitated the development of active temperature stabilization, and demonstrating that vibration, stress-induced birefringence, magnetic field effects, and spectral impurities do not influence the measurement. Work supported by the US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698, DE-AC52-07NA27344 and DE-AC05-00OR22725
The electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostic on ITER will provide Te(r,t) for pressure profiles, energy content, runaways, mode identification and plasma control. With its high electron temperatures and nuclear environment, ITER represents new challenges for each component of the diagnostic system. The frontend includes two Gaussian optics antennas and specially designed 1000 K calibration sources that can be put into view with mirrors on piezoelectric actuators. Long transmission lines (45 m) will transport the 70-1000 GHz radiation between the port and the diagnostic hall; low loss across the wide frequency band will be required. The first-line instruments will be a Michelson interferometer for multi-harmonic measurements, and two multichannel heterodyne radiometers, one for first harmonic O-mode and one for second harmonic X-mode. An additional instrument will be needed for low field operation. Critical issues for the diagnostic will be relativistic broadening and harmonic overlap at the expected high electron temperatures and dealing with possibly large stray power from the ECH system. The status of the design and some of the problems encountered and solutions found will be presented. *Supported by US-IPO via PPPL subcontract S013464 to the University of Texas.
Transmission crystal spectrometers have been fielded at NIF, JLF, LLE, and other major international laser facilities for the purpose of recording survey spectra in the > 6 keV energy range. Spectrometer sensitivities have been measured at the NIST national standard x-ray calibration facility using the absolute NIST exposures (air kerma) to establish an energy-dependent response function. This presentation will describe on-going efforts to experimentally demonstrate high resolving power (> 12,000) using a compact spectrometer geometry that is compatible with diagnostic instrument manipulators at major laser facilities such as NIF. Resolving power of 12,000 has already been experimentally demonstrated, using a cylindrically bent Si (331) crystal and the 8 keV Cu K lines, with the capability for 20,000 resolving power using the same crystal and 0.5 m long spectrometer geometry. Experimentally measuring such high resolution requires the careful measurement of the detector spatial resolution, of image plates and scanners for example, and of the source broadening of the spectral lines resulting from natural lifetime broadening and other effects. These techniques have been developed and experimentally demonstrated at NIST and will be described.
In magnetically confined fusion reactors, heavy impurity ions released by plasma wall interaction and entering the plasma may lead to fuel dilution and degradation of plasma performance by enhanced radiation losses. Therefore, plasma regimes avoiding large impurity influx and impurity accumulation, have to be explored in order to ensure stationary plasma operation. Impurity confinement is mainly determined by transport mechanisms in the core plasma. For W7-X, the island divertor is expected to screen external impurity sources in the scrape-off layer at higher densities effectively. However, the unique feature of Tracer-Encapsulated Solid Pellet (TESPEL) injection, releasing impurities at a well localized radial position directly in the core plasma enables investigating such transport mechanisms. This paper reports on the detailed design and achieved performance parameters of a completely new tracer-encapsulated solid pellet (TESPEL) injection system, which has been designed by NIFS, Japan and is currently being assembled at IPP, Germany, for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator.
A support vector regression (SVR) method is integrated with a collisional radiative (CR) model of the dual-source Helicon-Cathode (HelCat) linear plasma device to determine ArI profiles based on metastable-pumped LIF measurements. A machine learning approach to the CR model allows for an efficient exploration of the input parameter space and can incorporate probe measurement errors for inputs of electron density and temperature profiles that the CR model would normally be sensitive to. A training set is created for mapping ArI input profiles to metastable CR model outputs using shape preserving cubic Hermite interpolating polynomials. This method may be easily adapted to other LIF pumping schemes and may even be used to validate electron temperature and density plasma profiles if neutral or ion profiles are already known.
Magnetic perturbation measurements will be invaluable for characterizing Lithium Tokamak Experiment Beta (LTX-β) plasmas due to the time-evolving, 3D nature of the magnetic fields generated by eddy currents in the vessel and copper shell segments, as well as enhanced MHD instability drive due to newly introduced neutral beam heating. The LTX-β upgrade includes two new arrays of Mirnov coils: a shell eddy sensor array of two-axis coils distributed over the back surface of one shell segment, and a toroidal array of poloidal field coils at the low-field side midplane gap. Evaporative lithium wall-coating and the high temperatures required for liquid lithium wall operation both complicate the implementation of in-vessel diagnostics. While the shell array is protected from lithium exposure, the shell segment to which it is mounted will at times exceed 300°C. The toroidal array, however, will experience direct line-of-sight exposure to the lithium evaporator as well as close proximity to the hot shell, and may also be subject to poorly-confined, beam-driven fast ions. We describe how the two new Mirnov arrays meet these environmental challenges and enhance the LTX-β diagnostic suite. This work is supported by US DOE contracts DE-AC02-09CH11466 and DE-AC05-00OR22725.
A tomographic diagnostic based on measurements of the Hα line emitted after interaction of an H beam with the background gas is under development on the NIO1 test facility. NIO1 is a flexible small ion source producing 9 beamlets at up to 130 mA of H- ions accelerated at 60 KeV. Aim of this device is to investigate the physics of negative ion production, extraction and acceleration as well as to test and optimise the diagnostics for SPIDER and MITICA, the prototypes, respectively, of the negative ion sources and of the whole neutral beam injectors for ITER experiment. The tomographic diagnostic is used mainly to measure the beam uniformity with sufficient contrast and spatial resolution, and of its evolution throughout the pulse duration, by resolving the local emission of visible light in the beam from line-integrated measurements in one cross-section. In NIO1 a reduced setup comprising two 2D cameras has been installed and operated. The beam uniformity can be estimated with a resolution down to 5 mm if suitable regularization is applied in the tomographic inversion. The contribution describes the layout of the diagnostic and the first measurements of the beam in different experimental conditions, including the techniques adopted for data analysis in the case of two CCDs.
Measurement and control of plasma current density profile is crucial for high performance scenario development on EAST [1]. As a local magnetic measurement technique, the Motional Stark Effect (MSE) diagnostic, which employs the spectrum of injected neutral beams, is widely adopted. Recently, a multi-channel MSE diagnostic was designed and deployed on EAST. An integrated periscope, which is installed at G port, views the tangential neutral beam covering the major radius of 1.8~2.33m with a spatial resolution smaller than 3cm. A set of dual photo-elastic modulators (PEMs), which is operated at 42/47 kHz, is followed by a polarizer used to encode the polarization direction onto the modulated light intensity. The encoded light will be guided to the remote laboratory by 100m long fiber bundles. Customized dual-output filter couplers are adopted to select the desired Stark components or to measure the Doppler shifted spectra. The time-varying signals from the preamplifiers are directly recorded by a 10MHz fast data acquisition system. Meanwhile, signals at the second harmonic amplitudes from phase lock loop devices are recorded by 250kHz slow data acquisition system. The data are processed automatically after each discharge.
This paper presents a methods for the intrinsic impurity concentration measurements by means of VUV and SXR diagnostics on the JET-ILW tokamak. Measurements of mid-Z impurities content were obtained by means of VUV spectra. To provide absolute concentrations a new relative calibration technique has been proposed. It’s based on cross-calibration with calibrated spectrometer by using unresolved transition array of W in the relevant wavelength range. The SXR cameras were used to deduce W profiles and poloidal asymmetries. Focus is given to hybrid discharges stopped by the real-time vessel protection system due to hot-spots formation. This effect was linked to the application of ICRH power. Local D2 gas injection allows mitigating hot-spot formation and run pulses with acceptable temperature values on vessel components. Hot spot temperature analysis showed a lower maximum temperature at higher gas rate. A decrease of impurity concentration with D2 injection rate was observed. Changes in the plasma current have a strong impact on the plasma-wall interaction, both via modifications in the edge density and in the fast-ion losses. Finally it was observed that at constant gas injection rate, both the hot spot temperature and the core impurity content decrease with the separatrix density.
A diagnostic neutral beam or heating neutral beam provides a population of high energy neutrals for active beam plasma diagnostics in fusion plasmas such as charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. Accurate modeling of the local density of beam neutrals is needed for interpretation of diagnostic data. A simple and fast model has been developed to calculate 3D density distribution of beam neutrals from neutral beam injection. The model takes into account beam parameters, i.e. beam ion source and aperture geometry, beam divergence and focus. The simple model saves significant computing time by calculating beam attenuation in 1D flux coordinates and mapping back onto 3D Cartesian grids that are built around the neutral beam centerline. The main assumption of the model is that plasma rotation does not significantly affect beam attenuation, which is generally true for neutral beam injections in fusion plasmas. The calculated 3D beam neutral density profile and magnitude are in excellent agreement with more sophisticated codes such as NUBEAM and FIDASIM, but the computing time is more than one order faster. Further optimizations and parallelization of the code should further decrease the calculation time, which may make the model suitable for real-time applications.
Velocity-space tomography provides a way of diagnosing fast ions in a fusion plasma by combining measurement from multiple instruments. We use a tangentially viewing and a perpendicularly viewing fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) diagnostic installed on the spherical tokamak MAST (before the upgrade) to do velocity space tomography of the fast-ion distribution function. To make up for the scarce amount of data, prior information is included in the inversions. We impose a non-negativity constraint, exclude the velocity space associated with null-measurements, and we encode the belief that the distribution function does not extend to higher energies than neoclassically expected. This allows us to study the fast-ion velocity distributions and the derived fast-ion densities before and after a sawtooth crash.
The Laser-driven Ion-beam Trace Probe (LITP) is a new method to diagnose the Bp and Er in tokamaks [1, 2]. It takes full use of four characters of the Laser-driven Ion beam: large energy spread, large pitch angle distribution, short pulse and multiple charge states. Here preliminary experimental results of LITP will be reported. In 2017, lots of LITP experiments were done on the PKU Plasma Test (PPT) device. The experimental system includes scintillator detectors, poloidal magnetic coils and a penning ion source instead of the Laser-driven Ion-beam. These first-step experiments show that LITP worked well. Furthermore, a laser-driven accelerator has been set up next to the PPT device and a series of experiments will take place in early 2018. The laser-driven accelerator, the scintillator detector and the reconstruct method will be tested to examine the LITP system. Besides, the scintillator-CCD system will be tested in HL-2A tokamak using a probe platform to identify its performance under tokamak environment. After that, a prototype system will be designed aimed at HL-2A, EAST and HL-2M tokamaks.
[1] Yang et al. RSI 85(11), 11E429 (2014).
[2] Yang et al. RSI 87(11), 11D610 (2016)
On the quest for an improved understanding of the physics of runaway electrons, there is need to develop diagnostic methods that can provide access to their distribution function. Spectral measurements of the bremsstrahlung spectrum in the gamma-ray energy band are a means to gain insight on confined and escaped runaways as they lose energy in the event of a sudden termination of the plasma discharge. Benefiting from advances in the technology of high counting rate gamma-ray spectrometers, we have developed a high resolution gamma-ray spectrometer with MHz capabilities for runaway electron measurements in disruptions at ASDEX Upgrade. The detector views the plasma along a partially collimated radial line of sight and determines the energy spectrum of the impinging radiation by pulse height measurements with a fast digitizer and dedicated reconstruction algorithms. A deconvolution method is then used to infer the runaway electron distribution function from the gamma-ray spectrum. In this work we describe the main features of the detector and we present examples of measurements of the runaway distribution function in disruption mitigation experiments by means of massive gas injection or magnetic perturbations at ASDEX Upgrade.
A large-aperture high-sensitive image intensifier panel consists of an avalanche photodiode array and a LED array was developed. The device has 60% quantum efficiency, 105 photon-to-photon gain, 70-ns time resolution. A gate mode is also available. A panel size is typically 20 cm large but it can be increased with no limitation. An image resolution is limited by the size of a pixel of current avalanche photo diode array which is typically 2mm, although it can be improved. It can be operated with a small voltage supply, typically +57 V. This device can be applied for a various field, such as X-ray or neutron imaging device when coupled with a scintillator. A scintillation light from a scintillator (~10000 photons) can be amplified to eye-visible bright light. The device was demonstrated as a neutron imaging device coupled with a scintillator and a normal CCD camera. A DD fusion neutron beam generated by a high power laser GEKKO XII irradiated to the devise and a neutron shadowgraph image was successfully obtained with a much smaller neutron flux (104 n/cm2) than any conventional neutron cameras.
Based on the charge exchange recombination between fast ions and a neutral beam, fast ion features can be inferred from the Doppler shifted spectrum of Balmer-alpha light from energetic hydrogenic atoms[1]. With the available probe beam, the fast ion D-alpha (FIDA) diagnostic with a spectrometer system (s-FIDA) has been installed and validated on EAST [2,3,4]. In order to study the interaction between instabilities and fast-ion transport, recently we extended the FIDA measurements by using a combination of a band-pass filter and a photomultiplier tube (PMT) (f-FIDA) with up to 2MHz sampling rate. A band-pass filter selects the desired spectral band from 651nm to 654nm before detection by PMT (According to the measured s-FIDA spectrum ). Preliminary data on the EAST tokamak show that the active signals have been detected from re-neutralized beam ions along the vertical and tangential viewing chords. The details will be presented in this paper to primarily address the specifications of f-FIDA hardware components and measurements. The investigation of high frequency macroscopic fluctuations measured by f-FIDA will be a further project.
Microwave imaging reflectometry(MIR) system is an advanced imaging system measuring plasma density fluctuations which has already been built and tested. And it will be installed on EAST tokamak. Also the electron cyclotron radiation imaging(ECEI) system has been installed on EAST providing temperature fluctuation information. By combining MIR and ECEI together, temperature and density fluctuations of the same region can be measured simultaneously, which is very meaningful for understanding the physical mechanism of plasma. Since 2015, EAST ECEI system has been moved to F port on EAST, and EAST MIR system will also be installed on the same port in 2018. A new combined optical system for MIR and ECEI has been designed and tested, which can provide adjustable zoom and focus for both ECEI and MIR, also with adjustable FCA and incident angle for MIR. The details of the optics design and characteristics will be given.
A capability for applying thin film coatings as electrodes in x-ray microchannel plates (MCPs) has been developed at the Nevada National Security Site for the National Nuclear Security Administration community. An electron beam physical vapor deposition system was adapted and modified to implement a well-researched coating process for producing uniform conductive films. Given the exponential gain dependence vs. applied voltage of these MCPs, which are used for time-evolved x-ray detection, spatial uniformity of the gain is completely dependent on the composition and layer thickness of the film materials. This paper describes the coating system and the materials and deposition process for the MCP electrodes. Results are presented from experiments on the Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine that use these coated MCPs in time- and space-resolved x-ray diagnostics. Flat-field characterization data using a Manson x-ray source are included to show MCP spatial uniformity. This work was done by Mission Support and Test Services, Contractor for the Nevada National Security Site, under Contract DE- NA0003624, and by Sandia National Laboratories under contract DE-NA-0003525. DOE/NV/03624--0026.
UCLA is continuing to develop a new generation diagnostic that utilizes cross-polarization scattering [1] (CPS) to measure the fluctuating internal magnetic fields in tokamaks. The CPS technique relies on magnetic turbulence to scatter EM radiation into the perpendicular polarization, enabling a local measurement of the magnetic fluctuations. This is a challenging measurement that addresses the contribution of magnetic turbulence to anomalous thermal transport in fusion relevant plasmas. The goal of the new quasi-optical design is to achieve the full spatial and wavenumber capabilities of the CPS diagnostic. The approach consists of independently controlled aiming systems for the probe and scattered EM beams (55-75 GHz). This is accomplished by internal focusing lenses and remotely controlled mirrors. This new quasi-optical front end was designed with the assistance of 3D plasma ray tracing and Gaussian beam propagation codes. The design of the lenses, mirrors, remote control components, vacuum interface, and testing will be presented. #Supported by US DOE under DE-FG02-08ER54984 and DE-FC02-04ER54698.
[1]T. Lehner, et al., Europhys. Lett., 8 759 (1989), Linda Vahala, et al., Phys. Fluids B 4, 619 (1992), X.L. Zou, et al., Phys. Rev. Lettrs, 75, 1090 (1995)
Recently, a neural network paradigm in our fusion community is regarded as one of the prominent technical breakthroughs by disconnecting the usual anticorrelation between the computational speed and the accuracy of numerical simulation results. If a neural network successfully replicates a computationally intensive simulation code, then the network is likely to reproduce the outputs of the code with not only high-fidelity but with fast turnaround as well. Since the network is designed to accomplish the given task with fully intact input parameters, if they are incomplete, i.e., some of them are missing, then the network may fail and result in generating faulty outputs. In order to deal with such a missing input problem, we develop a Bayesian based imputation scheme for a neural network reconstructing magnetic equilibria in real time with off-line-EFIT quality. The input parameters of the network are various magnetic signals, thus the forward model for the imputation is built based on Maxwell’s equations. The imputation scheme is complemented by Gaussian process to reduce the number of free-parameters and takes ~100 usec to infer the replacement inputs, which means that the scheme can be used for real-time applications.
A multi-energy soft x-ray (SXR) pinhole camera has been designed and built for the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) Reversed Field Pinch (RFP) to aid the study of particle and thermal-transport, as well as MHD stability physics. This novel imaging diagnostic technique combines the best features from both pulse-height-analysis and multi-foil methods employing a pixelated x-ray detector in which the lower energy threshold for photon detection can be adjusted independently on each pixel. Further improvements implemented on the new cooled PILATUS3 systems allow a maximum count rate of 10 MHz per pixel and sensitivity to the strong Al emission between 1.5 and 2.4 keV, as well as the characteristic Ar and Mo emission between 2 and 4 keV. The local x-ray emissivity will be measured in multiple energy ranges simultaneously, from which it is possible to infer profile measurements of core electron temperature (Te) and impurity density (nZ) with no a priori assumptions of plasma profiles, magnetic field reconstruction constraints, high-density limitations or need of shot-to-shot reproducibility. The maximum detector frame rate is 500 Hz with expected time and space resolutions of ~2 ms and <1 cm, respectively.
Experiments using the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) laser at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) with recently commissioned capabilities aim to characterize proton beams accelerated via the TNSA mechanism2 for use as both probes and drivers for High-Energy Density Physics experiments. The first measurements of ARC-driven TNSA proton beam characteristics, such as energy spectrum and conversion efficiency, relies on the recently commissioned NEPPS (NIF Electron Positron Proton Spectrometer) diagnostic. The NEPPS diagnostic is a version of the an existing spectrometer3 which has been primarily used for detecting MeV electron and positron spectra via permanent magnetic field dispersion, but has not been calibrated for protons. Small variations in the field uniformity can affect the proton dispersion due to the relatively small resolving power (E/dE) for this diagnostic. A broadband, TNSA proton source was produced at the Titan laser to experimentally calibrate the EPPS. Discussion of NEPPS as a TNSA proton diagnostic on the NIF will also be presented. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and funded by the LLNL LDRD program under tracking code 17-ERD-039.
The Ion Cyclotron Emission (ICE) diagnostic on the DIII-D tokamak advances our understanding of high-frequency energetic particles modes in the 5-200 MHz frequency range and motivates a possible similar ITER diagnostic. This diagnostic consists of ICRF antenna straps configured as receiving antennas and recently restored tile magnetic loop antennas, which have been used to collect a large set of radio frequency measurements in the 2015-17 run campaigns. Signals are digitized at 200 MSamples/sec for up to 5 seconds per discharge. The frequency response of the ICE antennas and differences between them will be described. Each shot typically yields 32 GB of data; techniques for successful handling and analysis of this challengingly large dataset will be discussed. The raw voltage fluctuations (<0.2 V and <1 mW) are analyzed in frequency space with FFTs and other tools within the OMFIT framework. In the case of the ICE modes, frequency is then mapped to real space with the aid of EFIT equilibrium reconstructions. This diagnostic has informed various energetic particle modes studies, including Compressional Alfven Eigenmodes (< 10 MHz), Ion Cyclotron Emission (5-25 MHz and higher harmonics), and whistler waves in the 100-200 MHz band. Work supported by US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698.
The next-generation Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer, called MRSt, will provide time-resolved measurements of the DT-neutron spectrum from Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) implosions at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). These measurements will provide critical information about the time evolution of the fuel assembly, hot-spot formation, and nuclear burn. The absolute neutron spectrum in the energy range of 12-16 MeV will be measured with high accuracy (~5%), unprecedented energy resolution (~100 keV) and, for the first time ever, time resolution (~20 ps). Crucial to the design of the system is a CD (or CH) conversion foil for the production of recoil deuterons (or protons) as close to the implosion as possible to provide a small source for the ion-optics of the MRSt magnet system. The foil-on-hohlraum technique has been demonstrated by placing a 1-mm-diameter, 40-μm-thick CD foil on the hohlraum diagnostic band along the line-of-sight of the current time-integrating MRS system, which measured the recoil deuterons. In addition to providing validation of the foil-on-hohlraum technique for the MRSt design, substantial improvement of the MRS energy resolution has been demonstrated.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Neutral velocity distribution function (NVDF) measurements of Ar-I metastables are demonstrated using single-photon laser induced fluorescence (LIF). These distributions are recorded by actively pumping the 1s5-2p2 (in Paschen’s notation) transition at 696.7352 nm, and observing the 727.494 nm fluorescence to 1s4. We compare 1s5 resonance schemes (at excitation of 706.9167 nm and 714.9012 nm) and present the advantages of the 696 nm scheme. The application of this scheme as a non-perturbative local measurement of the magnetic field is described. In this application, the spectral separation of the Zeeman-split sigma groups of the LIF spectrum provides a measurement of the magnetic field that is spatially localized on the order of the laser beam width. The full neutral velocity distribution function of the metastables is resolved, from which temperature and mean flow are derived. We show recent work that demonstrates a technique for achieving magnetic field and NVDF measurements in this way through a single window, with spatial localization < 1 cm at a distance of 50 cm. We discuss possible applications of this technique to edge plasmas and to chambers with limited optical access. We gratefully acknowledge support from NSF award PHYS 1360278.
Bent crystals are central to 1-D resolved x-ray spectroscopy and two-dimensional x-ray imaging of plasmas. Nominally identical crystals may differ in their performance with x-rays even though their visible-light images are close to identical. The detailed information needed to understand those differences, viz., the crystal's local diffraction properties over the area that contributes to the image, is averaged out in the
imaging tests that ideally precede the actual crystal's use. Here the local diffraction of spherically bent crystals made from quartz is examined in the x-ray topography setup at the x-ray optics testingbeamline 1-BM at the Advanced Photon Source, with radiation obtained from a flat quartz conditioning crystal made for the purpose.
An 8-channel High-k Scattering system is under development for NSTX- U. The 693 GHz poloidal scattering system replaces a 5-channel 280 GHz toroidal scattering system to study high-k density fluctuations on NSTX-U. The far-infrared (FIR) probe beam launched from Bay G is aimed towards Bay L, where large aperture optics collect radiation at 8 simultaneous scattering angles ranging from 2 to 15°. This yields measurement of poloidal wavenumbers from 7 cm-1 up to >40 cm-1, while the translatable optics allow the scattering volume to be placed from r/a = 0.1 out to the pedestal region (r/a ~ 0.99). A microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) system is also under development for NSTX-U, to monitor low-kθ (< 3 cm-1) density fluctuations. The MIR system will co-exist with the High-k Scattering system on Bay L, using a polarizing beam splitter to reflect the MIR beam upwards to the MIR optics positioned above that of the High-k Scattering system. Details of the 5×4 channel (5 poloidal, 4 radial) MIR system, spanning a frequency range of 51 to 75 GHz, will be presented together with that of the poloidal High-k Scattering system. *Work supported in part by U.S. DOE Grant DE-FG02-99ER54518 and DE-AC02-09CH1146.
An in-situ wavelength calibration system for the X-ray Imaging Crystal Spectrometer (XICS) on W7-X has been developed to provide routine calibration between plasma shots. XICS is able to determine plasma flow profiles by measuring the Doppler shift of x-ray line emission from high charged impurity species. A novel design is described that uses an x-ray tube with a cadmium anode placed in front of the diffracting spherically bent crystal. This arrangement provides calibration lines over the full detector extent for both the Ar16+ and Ar17+/Fe24+ spectrometer channels. This calibration system can provide wavelength accuracy of 5x10-6 A, which corresponds to a plasma flow velocity of 500 m/s in the W7-X system. This calibration system can be used to independently calibrate XICS systems on both stellarators and tokamaks, without the need for special plasma conditions often used for calibration, such as locked modes on tokamaks. Experimental and simulated results are shown along with expected results and complete design of the calibration hardware to be installed in W7-X XICS system.
RMP (Resonant Magnetic Perturbation) coils are equipped to study the plasma response to the external magnetic perturbation in tokamaks. In J-TEXT, the static RMP coils have significant impacts on the probes which measure the low frequency signal, such as the locked mode sensor and displacement probes. The contribution on the probes of the RMP coils has been investigated so as to get the error magnetic field away. Besides, as for the displacement probe, which is used to control the real-time position of the plasma, a real-time PID strategy has been come up for the compensation of the RMP field influence. In the alternating-current operation of the RMP coils, the contribution from the eddy current become remarkable. The amplitude decay and phase delay of the RMP coils field have been measured in the vacuum, to decouple the measured magnetic signals from the RMP error. In particular, the pulse current was applied in the RMP coils for the feedback control of the tearing mode. And its magnetic response was combined with the alternating component and the direct component. By the cross check of the finite element analysis and experimental tests, a model from the initial flux establish to the stable status towards the pulse current has been built, and applied for error elimination.
Studies of transient plasma events may reveal fast relaxation mechanisms of the plasma pressure or MHD events. A particular application specifying measurement requirements is the fuelling of fusion plasmas with cryogenic pellets. The paper describes a Thomson Scattering System, simultaneously providing electron temperature and density profiles, combining high temporal resolution and adjustable measuring times. This “burst” Thomson Scattering mode has a 10 kHz time resolution for repetitive bursts of typically 1.2 ms duration, compared to the 10 Hz standard mode. A burst can be either triggered at pre-defined times or by plasma events, for which a fast trigger logic circuit was developed. Currently, a single laser is employed emitting four laser pulses per burst. For the next campaign three lasers will be available providing twelve consecutive measurement points with 100 µs spacing. Burst measurements of pellet series have been conducted to demonstrate the viability of the approach. The event trigger employed the Hα emission of the pellet. Magnetic high and low field side pellet injections were compared. The assessment of potential grad-B effects did not show differences for different fuelling geometries. However, within a pellet series the deposition depth per pellet increased.
Multi-channel absolute extreme ultraviolet (AXUV) photodiodes array diagnostic system has been installed to measure the radiations in a wide spectral range on J-TEXT tokamak. It is dedicated for the studying of the radiation during the thermal quench phase in the disruptions caused by Massive Gas Injection (MGI). A standard method for deriving the local emissivity profiles of the plasma from the line-of-sight integrals measured by AXUV detectors is tomographic inversion. Such an inversion is challenging due to its ill-conditioned nature. Besides the accuracy of reconstruction profiles depends not only on the quality and quantity of data measured but also on the tomography algorithm. In this study, the space-time tomography algorithm was developed for J-TEXT plasmas by using Maximum Entropy method and finite element analysis method to obtain a more precise interpretation during the scenario of Massive Gas Injection. The feasibility and deviation of modified algorithm was verified. Finally, typical shots have been analyzed in detail by optimized two-dimensional image reconstruction, illustrating credibly spatial evolution of radiation power profiles and featuring poloidal asymmetric impurity distributions on J-TEXT tokamak.
A design is presented of a multichannel x-ray imager spanning energies from 5 to 30 keV for use as a fixed-port diagnostic for OMEGA experiments. The purpose of the absolute, multichannel imaging radiation diagnostic is to infer electron temperature Te and thereby provide a new approach to existing hot-spot temperature and pressure measurements. In contrast to the standard approach of inferring ion temperature from fusion neutrons, this x-ray based technique is insensitive to hydrodynamic motions. Absolute x-ray yield will be measured in channels defined by increasing amounts of titanium filtration and this signal will be used to fit a parameterized hot-spot emission model. The range is selected to probe optically thin x-rays and provide 100-eV sensitivity of inferred Te. The multispectral imaging will use a hybrid-penumbral approach so as to separate the hot-spot from coronal hot-electron emission yet maximize signal. Magnification will be 10× and 20× for ~5- to 10-μm resolution of the hot-spot as recorded on a time-integrated, absolutely calibrated image-plate detector. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
We recently developed a one-dimensional imager of neutrons (ODIN) on the Z facility. The instrument is designed for MagLIF experiments, which produce DD neutron yields ~3e12 and, from x-ray imaging, produce a 1-cm long, ~100-µm diameter stagnation column. The small radial extents and present yields precluded useful radial resolution so a one-dimensional imager was developed. The imaging component is 10-cm thick tungsten slit; a rolled-edge slit limits variations in acceptance angle along the source. CR39 was chosen as a detector due to its negligible sensitivity to the bright x-ray environment in Z. A layer of high density poly-ethylene is used to enhance the sensitivity of the CR39. We present data from fielding the instrument on Z, demonstrating reliable imaging and track densities consistent with diagnosed yields. For yields ~3e12 we obtain resolutions ~500 µm with good signal to noise. Finally, we show planned modifications to allow co-liner x-ray imaging to provide better registration to other diagnostics. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. DOE's NNSA under contract DE-NA-0003525. Work at LLNL was performed under NNSA Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344
ECE radiometers which use variable location channels based on YIG filters improve the precision and the efficiency of measurements of Te profiles and magnetic islands. These variable frequency filters were substituted for fixed filters in the IF section of a radiometer to achieve required higher resolution over a target radial range specified just before the experiment [Truong et al. Sci. Instrum. 85, 11D814 (2014)]. Here, we add real-time slewing for relocation of channels during long pulse for investigation of magnetic islands, and for high resolution measurement of electron temperature gradient scale length (LTe). The key component is the yttrium iron garnet (YIG) tunable filters with their narrow bandwidth and capability for high slew rate of the center frequency. These permit fast relocation of the ECE channels, direct measurement of LTe, and close spacing of channels. Taking full advantage of the filter requires intelligent feedback control. Here, the measured filter characteristics are combined with past performance of an eight channel EAST radiometer to redesign the radiometer for upcoming experiments at EAST. Simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the approach. *Supported by US DoE DE-SC0010500 and DE-FG02-97ER54415.
The Orion high-resolution x-ray (OHREX) spectrometer has been a successful tool for measuring the shapes of density-broadened spectral lines produced in short-pulse heated plasmas on the Orion laser facility. We have recently outfitted the instrument with a charge-couple device (CCD) camera, which greatly increased the accuracy with which we can perform line-shift measurements. Because OHREX is located on the outside of the Orion target chamber, no provisions for the shielding of electromagnetic pulses were required. We obtained a higher signal-to-noise ratio than we previously obtained with an image-plate detector. This allowed us to observe structure in the image produced by the reflection from the two OHREX crystals, which was highly reproducible from shot to shot. This structure will ultimately limit the accuracy of our spectroscopic measurements. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LLNL under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Electron cyclotron heating (ECH) power modulation experiments in GAMMA 10 tandem mirror have been started in order to generate and control the high heat flux and to make the ELM (edge localized mode) like intermittent heat load pattern for divertor simulation studies. Temporally and spatially resolved soft X-ray and end-loss-electron analyses of electron cyclotron heated plasmas are carried out by using a semiconductor detector array and an electrostatic energy analyzer in the GAMMA 10 tandem mirror. The flux and the energy spectrum of end loss electrons are measured by a multi-grid energy analyzer (loss electron diagnostics, LED). End loss electrons enter the analyzer through a small hole on an electrically floating end plate that is located in front of the end wall. The collector current of the analyzer corresponds to the electron current flowing into the end plate. In this paper, experimental results in ECH power modulation for control of high intermittent heat flux in GAMMA 10 tandem mirror by the use of these detectors for electron properties are reported.
The single-line-of-sight, time-resolved x-ray imager (SLOS-TRXI) on OMEGA is a new generation of fast-gated x-ray cameras comprising an electron pulse-dilation imager [1] and a nanosecond-gated, burst-mode hybrid complementary metal-oxide semiconductor sensor.[2] SLOS-TRXI images the core of imploded cryogenic deuterium–tritium shells in inertial confinement fusion experiments in the ~4- to 9-keV photon energy range with a pinhole imager onto a photocathode. The diagnostic is mounted on a fixed port almost perpendicular to a 16-channel, framing-camera–based, time-resolved Kirkpatrick–Baez microscope,[3] providing a second time-gated line-of-sight for hot-spot imaging on OMEGA. The diagnostic achieves ~30-ps temporal resolution and a spatial resolution of ~10 mu. Shots with neutron yields of up to 1e14 were taken without any hint of neutron-induced background signal. The implosion images from SLOS-TRXI show the evolution of the stagnating core. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0001944.
[1] T. J. Hilsabeck et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 10E317 (2010).
[2] L. Claus et al., Proc. SPIE 9591, 95910P (2015).
[3] F. J. Marshall et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 88, 093702 (2017).
A system for neutron detection with an ultra-fast digitizer and on-board Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based pulse identification techniques has been implemented on the DIII-D tokamak. The neutron rate measurement is a critical tool for determining the global fast-ion transport, among other uses. Compared to the conventional analog approach with complex Nuclear Instrumentation Module (NIM) & Computer-Aided Measurement And Control (CAMAC) electronics, this straightforward solution has a variety of advantages, including reliability, flexibility, expandability, easier implementation and maintenance, besides being simple and budget friendly. The system features a 12-channel, 16-bit resolution digitizer sampling at a maximum rate of 120 MSPS per channel and a Kintex-7 family FPGA for real-time signal processing. It will create less than 5 GB data per regular experimental day, and can stream the raw data to disk for post-processing when desired. The system can be used as a pulse height analyzer and has the potential capability for neutron and gamma discrimination after some upgrades. Details on system setup, algorithms for digital pulse identification and data management will be presented. Work supported by U.S. DOE Contract DE-FC02-04ER54698
The new electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system is being developed and set up on J-TEXT tokamak. The system includes two separate dual dipole antenna arrays. Each array contains 16(vertical direction) x 8(radial direction) = 128 channels. The quasi-optical system consists of two parts: the imaging optics for plasma imaging and the local oscillator optics for mixers driving. For the updated demands, some modification and progress are accomplished on the imaging optics subsystem. The field curvature of focal plane is limited to 4mm.The vertical zoom factor is 1.15-1.95, corresponding to the vertical coverage from 23.9 cm to 40.2 cm. And there will be a possibility to extend the vertical channels from 16 to 20 for the next step. A new local oscillator optics subsystem is designed as well, which is operated to guarantee the uniform driving requirement of all antenna channels, especially for the edge ones. For the wide range (from 1.2T to 2.3T) of typical toroidal magnetic field on J-TEXT, the focus plane needs to be adjusted in different experiment. So a joint remote control unit is employed for both imaging optics and local oscillator optics subsystems. The latest optical testing results will also be introduced and compared with simulation results.
The present work concerns the first measurements obtained with the visible spectroscopy diagnostic during the WEST start up. The goal of this diagnostic is to measure the PFC sources and the deuterium recycling with spectral, spatial and temporal resolution adapted to the predicted power deposition profiles on the objects observed. Three kinds of PFC are monitored: the ICRH antenna and LHCD launcher W limiters; one of the 6 high field side W limiters; the upper and lower W divertors. Large-aperture in_situ actively cooled optical systems (f-number ~ 3) were installed for each view and connected to optical fibres. A total of 240 optical fibres can be distributed on various detection systems including a fast response-time, multi-channel, filtered photodetector-based “Filterscope” system, developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as grating spectrometers optimized for multi-sightline analysis. The paper will first present the configuration of the Visible Spectroscopy system for the first plasma experiments, namely the views and the detection systems commissioned. Then the alignments and radiance calibration procedures including the patch panel feature will be explained. Finally, the first data obtained during plasma ramp up attempts will be presented and discussed.
X-ray imaging optics are finding increased used in high energy density (HED) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. Kirkpatrick-Baez microscopes and Wolter optics, for example, have complex point spread functions. Multilayer coated optics will have energy response functions that can vary with off-axis position. It is necessary to calibrate the optical systems in order to take full advantage their resolution and energy response. LLNL has built a facility to calibrate x-ray optics. The calibration includes measurement of point-spread functions for a range of optics, covering an energy range of 5 – 30 keV currently, extendable to 60 keV. We will describe the capabilities of the calibration facility, concept of operations, and initial data from select x-ray optics. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LLNL-ABS-743924
Charge Exchange Recombination Spectroscopy (ChERS) diagnostics will provide measurements of ion temperature, velocity and density profiles in C-2W field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas. Currently, two diagnostic systems are planned, one for impurity ions and the other dedicated to main ion measurements. Both diagnostic systems will use a common diagnostic neutral beam, currently under development, and high-speed CCD cameras coupled with intensifiers using high-efficiency optics. Impurity ion ChERS can also be used as a passive diagnostic in the absence of a diagnostic neutral beam, and is able to provide a full radial profile every hundred microseconds. Impurity charge exchange signals are typically produced by partially ionized oxygen impurities. Design of the systems will be presented. Operational configurations and significant improvements to the sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio will be discussed.
We have begun using a new generation of high-speed hybrid-CMOS solid-state X-ray framing camera in diagnostics on the Z Facility. Initial applications are in x-ray imaging, spectroscopy, and backlighting. This new camera technology is compact and potentially much simpler to field and operate than traditional microchannel-plate or streak-camera based x-ray imagers. These advantages should make it possible to significantly increase the number of time-resolving diagnostics on Z. A custom electronics system has been developed to operate reliably in the high EMI and radiation environments produced on Z experiments and to survive fielding at a distance as close as 1m from the z-pinch load. We have also developed a compact vacuum interface that enables the sensor to be easily connected to standard vacuum systems for soft x-ray measurement applications. We will describe the performance characteristics of the camera system, the physical dimensions and vacuum interface, computer control and I/O cabling requirements, approaches used to harden the electronics, and initial measurements from experiments on Z. Sandia is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by NTESS LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell Int., Inc., for the U.S. DOE’s NNSA under contract DE-NA0003525.
A cryogenic microjet system has been used for delivering microns-scale continuous liquid hydrogen targets for laser-plasma experiments. This technique has been extended to higher-Z, higher boiling-point gases, including argon and methane. High-resolution shadowgraphy has been used to characterize the jets morphology and pointing stability. A split and delay illumination source has also been developed for direct measurement of jet speeds without relying on assumptions of fluid flow conditions. Under typical conditions the argon jets freeze solid due to evaporative cooling, but the methane jets remain liquid and break up to a droplet stream. A piezo driver is used to ensure the droplets are of uniform size. This jet has enabled the investigation of methane in planetary core conditions with high-rep-rate laser heating and x-ray laser probing.
The temporal response of photodetectors used in nToF diagnostics at the NIF have been characterized to improve uncertainty in, and understanding of, shot parameters obtained from nTOF data. A 1 Hz laser, neutral density glass filters, and electrical attenuators were used to gather statistically-significant samples of photodetector impulse response functions (IRF) in rapid succession. Individual components have been absolutely calibrated to minimize systematic uncertainties. The zeroth, first, and second central moments of the IRF were calculated (after timing the signal with respect to a monitor photodiode) as either the bias voltage or the amount of light incident on the detector was varied. The calculation of the moments is sensitive to data with a low signal/noise ratio and the data was therefore truncated to avoid non-physical results. The primary sources of uncertainty are jitter in the monitor photodiode and those associated with our characterization of the electrical attenuators and light filters; work is being done to reduce these. The change in the first and second moments was found to be well within acceptable limits. Work performed under auspices of U.S. Dept. of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. IM Release: LLNL-ABS-744566
In C-2W, an elevated impurity concentration, or the presence of high-Z impurities, can account for significant energy losses through radiation. To gauge plasma contamination from impurities, the effective ionic charge (Zeff) can be determined from measurements of Bremsstrahlung continuum radiation over a small spectral range free from line radiation. To this end, an integrated diagnostic system including visible and near-infrared Bremsstrahlung detectors, as well as Blamer-alpha (D) neutral detectors for pollutant removal, will be deployed in C-2W for improved estimates of time-dependent radial distributions of Zeff. The system is complemented by an array of survey spectrometers which enable full-range spectroscopic measurements of impurity emission lines from the vacuum ultraviolet to the near infrared, providing a good picture of the plasma composition. Here, the design scheme for this integrated diagnostic system is presented and discussed.
The spectrometer, described in this paper, employs as the Bragg diffracting element a new type of focusing crystal, which is bent in the shape of a torus with a very large major radius, R, and much smaller, minor radii, ρ, which vary in magnitude and their angle of inclination with respect to the major radius, R, along the crystal surface. The source is placed close to the crystal surface to maximize the photon throughput; and the curvature of the crystal is such that, for each wavelength λ, a perfect image of an ideal point source would be obtained in the detector plane, which is at the distance, R sin[Θ(λ)] from the reflecting crystal points, where Θ(λ) is the Bragg angle for a wavelength λ. The spectral resolution is, therefore, not affected by source-size broadening and can be very high. This spectrometer also provides a high, one-dimensional, spatial resolution perpendicular to the dispersion plane since the crystal-detector distance is much larger than the crystal-source distance [K. W. Hill et al., this conference]. First tests of the spectrometer concept will be conducted with a micro-focus x-ray tube and a Si [220] crystal, which will be glued on 3D-printed substrate. *Supported by U.S. Department of Energy contracts: DE-AC02-09CH11466 and DE-AC52-07NA27344
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) device aims to achieve steady-state operation and long pulse discharge over 1000 seconds. The sampling rate of diagnosis systems usually ranges from 10 KSps to 10 MSps. With the requirement of some particular diagnosis, high-speed acquisition is needed. An embedded system based on FPGA with high-speed, long-time data acquisition is proposed in this paper. Cyclone FPGA EP4CGX30F484 is used as the master chip, and an ATMEL’s ADC chip is used to complete analog-to-digital conversion. The acquisition system is made up of 4 pieces of ADCs. The clock signals in the system are generated by LMK61A2 clock module controlled by FPGA to realize 4 channels alternate samples of ADCs. The acquired data is written into the disk array through PCIE interface, and then uploaded to the data server. The system can process eight different signals synchronously. A number of such system units can be used to collect more channel signals. The experimental result shows that the system can reach 80 Msps and the sampling precision can reach 12-bit with the 1500s continuous sampling. The system integrates signal conditioning, data acquisition and data processing into the single board, and provide a high integration and portability level architecture.
Motion Stark Effect (MSE) diagnostic measured the polarization direction of the Stark splitting spectrum of neutral beam to get the internal magnetic field information of Tokamak devices. According to a series of modulation technologies, the tangent value of polarization angle which MSE measured is proportional to the ratio of the second harmonic frequency modulation amplitude of photoelastic modulators (PEM). To obtain real-time amplitude and phase difference, the real-time dynamic processing analyzer based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was designed to acquire the signal spectrum with a high-speed windowed FFT, use frequence spectrum separation (FSS) to extract the local spectrum, do IFFT to the local spectrum to get multiple time-domain complex sequence, and calculate the amplitude and phase difference of the second harmonic frequency component at last. The system eventually outputs polarization angle information, and the information can be used for real-time feedback of other systems.
In the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak, a spatial array of reciprocating fast-ion loss detectors (FILD[1]) is being completed with the imminent installation of a new system[2]. This array of five scintillator-based FILD systems provides time-resolved velocity-space measurements of escaping ions at five different positions in the tokamak probing a large phase-space volume. A new code, FILDSIM[3], has been developed to design the probes, identify their best location and determine their phase-space coverage as a function of the detector radial position and most important plasma parameters, e.g. plasma shape. In this work, the geometrical configuration (heat shielding, scintillator and collimator geometries) of each detector has been optimized using FILDSIM to provide maximum detection range and resolution within specific predefined ranges of particle energy and pitch angle. Full orbit simulations allow us to determine the fast-ion phase-space coverage of the array, as a function of the plasma shape, safety factor and including the realistic 3D machine geometry. FILD measurements at multiple locations are used to reconstruct the escaping ion phase-space.
[1]M Garcia-Munoz et al., RSI 80, 053503 (2009)
[2]J Ayllon-Guerola et al., RSI 87, 11E705 (2016)
[3]J Galdon-Quiroga et al., in preparation
In J-TEXT plasma, multiple modes often occur simultaneously, such tearing m/n=2/1 (or 3/1, 5/2) mode, BAE, and even response to Resonant Magnetic Perturbatoins (RMPs), producing complex mixed signal data of magnetic probe array and leading to problems during analysis of modal evolution. Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI), as method of decomposing multi-mode signals, is applied on J-TEXT tokamak. Tens of chord signals of magnetic probe array on the same poloidal location have been acquired with the sampling frequency of 250/500 kHz. By analysis of magnetic signals with SSI method in this work, three cases of multi-mode analysis are processed: 1) signals of multiple tearing 2/1 and 5/2 (or another) modes are distinguished into different frequencies and spatial shape on poloidal position, 2) the frequency and spatial shape of very modest Beta-induced Alfvén Eigenmodes (BAEs) observed by magnetic probe array are extracted successfully, 3) plasma response to rotating RMPs can be identified in comparison from tearing 2/1 mode.
The soft X-ray pulse height analyzer (PHA) installed at Wendelstein 7-X stellarator is a 3-channel system that collects spectra from 0.25 to 20 keV. X-ray fluxes are line integrated for a line-of-sight that crosses near to the plasma center with temporal and spatial resolution of 100 ms and 2.5 cm (depending on slit sizes). During the 1st W7-X experimental campaign, OP1.1, the PHA was commissioned and tested, while during the 1st part of the 2nd campaign, OP1.2a, all 3 PHA channels were optimized individually to achieve good quality spectra. This was made by optimizing absorber-foil selection, which defines the detected energy range, and remotely controlled pinhole size, which defines photon flux. This paper reports on the PHA optimization process and presents results obtained during W7-X operation with a carbon divertor. Light impurities, e.g., carbon and oxygen, were observed as well as mid- to high-Z elements, e.g., sulfur, chlorine, chromium, iron and nickel. X-ray lines from several elements were observed after laser blow-off injection of impurity, e.g., silicon, titanium, iron and tungsten, and during discharges with prefill or gas puff of neon or argon. Their presence was confirmed by other spectroscopic diagnostics, e.g., by the High-Efficiency XUV Overview Spectrometer.
The ion temperature in VEST (Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus) is expected to increase with the neutral beam injection (NBI) heating and will be measured with emission spectroscopy. However, the temperature at the plasma edge still remains rather low, thus requiring a reliable spectroscopy technique with sufficient spectral resolution. Since the VEST system operates in a single pulse regime, with pulse duration of ~ 10ms, the time resolution of about 1 ms is required. In this work a possibility of the temperature measurements by an Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (I-FPI) using hydrogen and impurity emission line profile is considered. A concept design and the first results with H-alpha line obtained in the VEST are presented. The spectral resolution of I-FPI is about 15 GHz. The time-resolution has been realized using a high-speed camera. The time resolution of 1 to 10 ms has been used. The FPI fringes have been processed by a MathLabTM code. The gas temperature measured at the plasma edge is about 1 eV. In order to realize the multichannel I-FPI approach in the future, the necessary simulations (using the Light ToolsTM software) have also been performed, showing possibility of a 4 to 6 channel I-FPI for obtaining a spatial temperature profile across the plasma volume.
Neutron emission profile has been measured in NB-heated deuterium plasmas of LHD by using the vertical neutron camera (VNC) to obtain radial profile of beam ions. The fundamental performance test of the stilbene detector (SD) used for the VNC is performed as part of commissioning for the system. The detector responses to various energies of fast neutron were examined in accelerator-type neutron source facilities to understand fundamental property of the SD. Total charge of neutron-driven pulse increased with increase of neutron energy as expected. The obtained response function is available for neutron spectrometry in the future. In our system, anode signal of PMT connected to the SD is fed into a fast ADC equipped with FPGA for automated n-gamma discrimination. Since the signal level from PMT anode is week, quality of pulse shape depends on coaxial cable length. Therefore, we checked effect of cable length on pulse shape. The result indicates that coaxial cable up to 30 m in length can provide good n-gamma discrimination capability. Based on this, we determined the distance between the places of the SD and the instrument rack for ADC. In this paper, results of commissioning of SD for the VNC is presented. Representative results of neutron emission profile in LHD is also shown.
Understanding runaway electrons is a crucial topic for today’s tokamaks and for ITER. A new compact gamma-ray spectrometer was developed in order to optimise the measurement of Bremsstrahlung radiation emitted from these highly energetic particles. A LYSO:Ce scintillator crystal was chosen for its good light yield, high efficiency and fast decay time. The crystal was coupled to silicon photomultipliers and allows for a compact and robust design, insensitive to the magnetic field of tokamaks. A dedicated electronic board was developed for both on-line control of the diagnostic parameters and for optimal signal readout. The design of this detector allows for high-rate measurements (exceeding 1 MHz) of the energy spectra in a range up to several MeV with an energy resolution of about 8% at 1.1 MeV. Due to its compact dimensions, the instrument is well suited for implementation into array configurations, for example gamma-ray cameras. This work presents the design of the LYSO gamma ray spectrometer and the characterization of its performance in terms of energy resolution, counting rate capability and linearity.
Stable confinement of high-beta (local electron beta ~ 1) is demonstrated with high-energy electrons (T_e > 10 keV) by an X-ray measurement in the RT-1 magnetospheric plasmas. A new Nd:YAG laser Thomson scattering (TS) system has been developed to investigate the mechanism of the high-beta plasma formation in the RT-1. The designed parameters for the TS system is 10 eV < T_e < 50 keV and n_e > 1.0 x 10^{17} m^{-3}. In order to obtain the sufficient amount of scattered light for the low-density plasmas, we adopted the long scattered length (60 mm) and a bright optical system with both large collection window (Φ=260 mm) and large collection lens (Φ=300 mm). The system employs a Nd:YAG laser of 1.2 J (oscillation frequency: 10 Hz) with a scattering length of 60 mm (scattering angle: 90 degrees). Scattered light is collected by one set of lens (f/2.0, NA = 0.145) with a solid angle of ~ 68 m str and guided to an interference filter polychromator through an optical fiber bundle. As a test measurement and calibration, the Raman scattering signals were successfully obtained in N_2 gas. We found that the collection optics realizes a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio above n_e ~ 10^{17} m^{-3}. We also observed that the spectrum of TS light changes with the RT-1 plasma parameters.
For the edge CXRS on EAST, the ACX signal is strongly overlapped with passive signals, and the CXRS measurements are compounded spectra consisting of ACX signal and line-integrated background passive signal. Therefore, the analysis and understanding of passive emission is crucial to exclude its influence on the measurement of the ACX. The 1-D impurity transport code STRAHL is used to study the distribution of passive emission. By using assumed transport coefficients D and v, the carbon ions (C5+, C6+) distributions are calculated by STRAHL. According to the photon emissivity coefficients taken from ADAS, the radial emissivity profiles of the three components of passive emission, EIE, REC and PCX are obtained. Total local passive emission profile is integrated along line-of-sight (LOS) to give the intensity profile. It is consistent well with the experimental LOS profile in rho<0.9 region. While in rho>0.9 region, the experimental emission is much higher than the simulated value. By comparing with the local emission profile deduced by Abel inversion, the inconsistence of simulated and experimental results is considered due to the unreasonable high local emissivity at the edge region, which could be caused by strong wall reflection.
To understand the erosion effect of neutral particles on the first wall, a time-of-flight low energy neutral particle analyzer (LENPA) has been developed on EAST tokamak. The LENPA mounted on the EAST mid-plane consists of a chopper system, a 3 m long flight tube, two sets of detector assemblies and data acquisition, vacuum, power supply and control systems. The neutral outflux is gated in bunches of 1 μs time scale by a slotted rotating disc driven by a turbomolecular pump modified motor. A He-Ne laser beam is projected through the disc slit to record the instants of chopper slits opening by triggering an avalanche photodiode module. An on-axis electron multiplier detects chopped neutrals, and a central perforated Cu-Be plate is employed to channel the emitted secondary electrons into an off-axis electron multiplier. The radiation peak of on-axis electron multiplier caused by photons projected through the hole of Cu-Be plate is an alternative way to record the chopper slits opening time. With a fast memory card, 1GS/s sampling rate can be realized by means of a GaGe acquisition card continuously. The LENPA data will improve the understanding of wall material erosion by neutrals in a long pulse tokamak and make better predictions for the future devices, such as ITER and CFETR.