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An ion sensitive probe (ISP) is developed as a robust diagnostic for measuring plasma potentials (Φ(P)) in magnetized plasmas. The ISP relies on the large difference between the ion and electron gyroradii (ρ(i)/ρ(e)∼60) to reduce the electron collection at a collector recessed behind a separately biased wall distance ∼ρ(i). We develop a new ISP method to measure the plasma potential that is independent of the precise position and shape of the collector. Φ(P) is found as the wall potential when charged current to the probe collector vanishes during the voltage sweep. The plasma potentials obtained from the ISP match Φ(P) measured with an emissive probe over a wide range of plasma conditions in a small magnetized plasma.

Reversed shear Alfven eigenmodes (RSAEs) have been observed with the phase contrast imaging diagnostic and Mirnov coils during the sawtooth cycle in Alcator C-mod [M. Greenwald et al., Nucl. Fusion 45, S109 (2005)] plasmas with minority ion-cyclotron resonance heating. Both down-chirping RSAEs and up-chirping RSAEs have been observed during the sawtooth cycle. Experimental measurements of the spatial structure of the RSAEs are compared to theoretical models based on the code NOVA [C. Z. Cheng and M. S. Chance, J. Comput. Phys. 71, 124 (1987)] and used to derive constraints on the q profile. It is shown that the observed RSAEs can be understood by assuming a reversed shear q profile (up chirping) or a q profile with a local maximum (down chirping) with q≈1.