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Fast ions in fusion plasmas often leave characteristic signatures in the neutron emission from the plasma. In this paper, we show how neutron measurements can be used to study fast ions and give examples of physics results obtained on present day tokamaks. The focus is on measurements with dedicated neutron spectrometers and with compact neutron detectors used in each channel of neutron profile monitors. A measured neutron spectrum can be analyzed in several different ways, depending on the physics scenario under consideration. Gross features of a fast ion energy distribution can be studied by applying suitably chosen thresholds to the measured spectrum, thus probing ions with different energies. With this technique it is possible to study the interaction between fast ions and MHD activity, such as toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) and sawtooth instabilities. Quantitative comparisons with modeling can be performed by a direct computation of the neutron emission expected from a given fast ion distribution. Within this framework it is also possible to determine physics parameters, such as the supra-thermal fraction of the neutron emission, by fitting model parameters to the data. A detailed, model-independent estimate of the fast ion distribution can be obtained by analyzing the data in terms of velocity space weight functions. Using this method, fast ion distributions can be resolved in both energy and pitch by combining neutron and gamma-ray measurements obtained along several different sightlines. Fast ion measurements of the type described in this paper will also be possible at ITER, provided that the spectrometers have the dynamic range required to resolve the fast ion spectral features in the presence of the dominating thermonuclear neutron emission. A dedicated high-resolution neutron spectrometer has been designed for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate the measurement of a 2D MeV-range ion velocity distribution function by velocity-space tomography at JET. Deuterium ions were accelerated into the MeV-range by third harmonic ion cyclotron resonance heating. We made measurements with three neutron emission spectrometers and a high-resolution γ-ray spectrometer detecting the γ-rays released in two reactions. The tomographic inversion based on these five spectra is in excellent agreement with numerical simulations with the ASCOT–RFOF and the SPOT–RFOF codes. The length of the measured fast-ion tail corroborates the prediction that very few particles are accelerated above 2 MeV due to the weak wave-particle interaction at higher energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations made in a JET experiment aimed at accelerating deuterons to the MeV range by third harmonic radio-frequency (RF) heating coupled into a deuterium beam are reported. Measurements are based on a set of advanced neutron and gamma-ray spectrometers that, for the first time, observe the plasma simultaneously along vertical and oblique lines of sight. Parameters of the fast ion energy distribution, such as the high energy cut-off of the deuteron distribution function and the RF coupling constant, are determined from data within a uniform analysis framework for neutron and gamma-ray spectroscopy based on a one-dimensional model and by a consistency check among the individual measurement techniques. A systematic difference is seen between the two lines of sight and is interpreted to originate from the sensitivity of the oblique detectors to the pitch-angle structure of the distribution around the resonance, which is not correctly portrayed within the adopted one dimensional model. A framework to calculate neutron and gamma-ray emission from a spatially resolved, two-dimensional deuteron distribution specified by energy/pitch is thus developed and used for a first comparison with predictions from ab initio models of RF heating at multiple harmonics.The results presented in this paper are of relevance for the development of advanced diagnostic techniques for MeV range ions in high performance fusion plasmas, with applications to the experimental validation of RF heating codes and, more generally, to studies of the energy distribution of ions in the MeV range in high performance deuterium and deuterium-tritium plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fuel ion ratio (nt/nd) is of central importance for the performance and control of a future burning fusion plasma, and reliable measurements of this quantity are essential for ITER. This paper demonstrates a method to derive the core fuel ion ratio by comparing the thermonuclear and beam-thermal neutron emission intensities, using a neutron spectrometer. The method is applied to NBI heated deuterium tritium (DT) plasmas at JET, using data from the magnetic proton recoil spectrometer. The trend in the results is consistent with Penning trap measurements of the fuel ion ratio at the edge of the plasma, but there is a discrepancy in the absolute values, possibly owing to the fact that the two measurements are weighted towards different parts of the plasma. It is suggested to further validate this method by comparing it to the traditionally proposed method to estimate nt/nd from the ratio of the thermal DD and DT neutron emission components. The spectrometer requirements for measuring nt/nd at ITER are also briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]