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The measurement of the fuel mixture remains a very difficult task in thermonuclear plasmas, where the hydrogen isotopes are fully stripped and do not emit line radiation. On the other hand, direct determination of the ion species mix will be essential in the reactor to keep the mixture close to 50/50 and maximize the fusion output. In this paper, the design of fast wave reflectometry for JET is reviewed to show the potential of such a method in the perspective of ITER. The main design elements of the antenna and the detection system, based on vectorial measurements, are reported. The main challenges to such a diagnostic, mainly the intrinsic ion cyclotron emission from the plasma and the extensive use of ion cyclotron radiofrequencies as additional heating, are addressed in detail. The overall design indicates that the proposed system would be able to provide a measurement of the fuel ratio with spatial resolution in the range of few centimeters and temporal resolution in the range of 1 ms in the vast majority of JET scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the evolution of turbulence at several radial plasma locations in the Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment (ASDEX) Upgrade tokamak, using microwave reflectometry. We analyze two types of scenarios: H-mode plasmas with improved performance and plasmas with electron cyclotron resonance heating modulation. Profound modifications of the turbulence spectra, occurring at specific plasma regions, have been found in both cases, indicating the relation between turbulence changes and confinement. The results demonstrate the ability of the reflectometry system on ASDEX Upgrade to make localized measurements. Mapping the radial distribution of turbulence can help us to understand the links between plasma rotation, shear, ExB flows, and the plasma turbulence behavior. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the upgraded channels of the broadband microwave reflectometry system on ASDEX Upgrade. Probe of the simultaneous high and low fields plasma; Measurement of density profiles; Heterodyne frequency at the highest frequency bands; Potential of the reflectometry to estimate the location of the rational q surfaces.

Proposes an algorithm performing two-dimensional regularization of data provided by multiple consecutive frequency sweeps, which leads to improved accuracy of plasma density profiles obtained by broadband reflectometry. Interference of probing waves with plasma density fluctuations; Plasma turbulence.

Discusses the development of a reflectometry system for ASDEX Upgrade to measure the plasma profile from the scrape-off layer until the bulk plasma. Ultrafast broadband frequency modulation of a continuous wave; Use of solid state stable hyper abrupt tuned oscillators; Special design of the transmission line; Elimination of spurious reflections.

Features a single channel microwave interferometer developed for a tokamak with an improved detection that uses an heterodyne configuration and is based on a differential quadrature phase concept. Direct phase measurements obtained due to the elimination of the variations of the detected signals resulting from the nonideal behavior of the output mixers.

The recent upgrade to the MAST YAG Thomson scattering while enhancing the diagnostic capabilities increased the complexity of the system. There are eight YAG lasers now operational, doubling the number from the previous setup. This means alignment between each laser individually and reference points is essential to guarantee data quality and diagnostic reliability. To address this issue an alignment system was recently installed. It mimics the beams alignment in MAST by sampling 1% of the laser beam that is sent into a telescope which demagnifies by a factor of 8. The demagnified beam is viewed with a CCD camera. By scanning the camera the profile and position of the beams in the scattering zone and in a range of several meters inside MAST can be determined. Therefore alignment is checked along the beam path without having to sample it inside the vessel. The experimental apparatus and test procedures are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millimeter-wave reflectometers for performing density fluctuations have traditionally used either tunable fixed frequency (heterodyne and homodyne) systems or multichannel fixed frequency arrangements. Only recently novel systems were brought into operation with the ability to hop from one frequency to another over a large bandwidth, during each plasma discharge, while retaining the quality of fixed frequency phase locked sources. The new broadband fast hopping millimeter-wave reflectometer incorporates frequency synthesizers for both plasma signal and local oscillators, and the receivers are heterodyne producing full phase/amplitude outputs. Two identical systems were recently installed in (ASDEX upgrade tokamak - IPP-MPG Germany) covering the Q band (33–50 GHz) and the V band (50–75 GHz). In the present article the system is described and the particular implementation on ASDEX, using monostatic antenna system, is presented showing the possibility of correlation studies in fully optimized antenna scenarios. With both Q and V channels in operation it was possible to devise several operation schemes that are described here and a result showing the radial localization of magnetohydrodynamic activity is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The celebrated Lambert-Beer law of light absorption in photochromic media is only valid at low intensities of incident light and low concentration of chromophore. Here we address the generic problem of photoabsorption dynamics, experimentally studying the case of azobenzene isomerization. We show that the nonlinear regime is very common and easy to achieve in many practical situations, especially in thick samples where the light depletes the chromophore in the first layers and can propagate through the medium with a subexponential law. This result holds not only for azobenzene isomerization but for all photochromic processes. Importantly, the crossover into the nonlinear absorption regime only weakly depends on the dye concentration and solution viscosity. We experimentally quantify the characteristics of this peculiar optical response and determine the key transition rate constants.