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The ITER Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic will measure the dynamics of fusion-born alpha particles in the burning ITER plasma by scattering a 1 MW 60 GHz gyrotron beam off fast-ion induced fluctuations in the plasma. The diagnostic will have seven measurement volumes across the ITER cross section and will resolve the alpha particle energies in the range from 300 keV to 3.5 MeV; importantly, the CTS diagnostic is the only diagnostic capable of measuring confined alpha particles for energies below ∼1.7 MeV and will also be sensitive to the other fast-ion populations. The temporal resolution is 100 ms, allowing the capture of dynamics on that timescale, and the typical spatial resolution is 10–50 cm. The development and design of the in-vessel and primary parts of the CTS diagnostic has been completed. This marks the beginning of a new phase of preparation to maximize the scientific benefit of the diagnostic, e.g., by investigating the capability to contribute to the determination of the fuel-ion ratio and the bulk ion temperature as well as integrating data analysis with other fast-ion and bulk-ion diagnostics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel method for efficient production of prototypes of microwave components by fused depositing modeling, also known as 3D plastic printing, and vapor deposition coating of a 1 μm copper layer. We demonstrate that the properties of the components follow the predicted performance for low power microwave propagation. The production method offers new opportunities for cheap and efficient production of mock-ups and prototypes of advanced-geometry components for tests with low-power microwaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that collective Thomson scattering (CTS) holds the potential to become a new diagnostic principle for measurements of the fuel ion ratio, nT/nD, in ITER. Fuel ion ratio measurements will be important for plasma control and machine protection in ITER. Measurements of ion cyclotron structures in CTS spectra have been suggested as the basis for a new fuel ion ratio diagnostic which would be well suited for reactor environments and capable of providing spatially resolved measurements in the plasma core. Such measurements were demonstrated in recent experiments in the TEXTOR tokamak. Here we conduct a sensitivity study to investigate the potential measurement accuracy of a CTS fuel ion ratio diagnostic on ITER. The study identifies regions of parameter space in which CTS can be expected to provide useful information on plasma composition, and we find that a CTS fuel ion ratio diagnostic could meet the ITER measurement requirements for a standard ELMy H-mode discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast ion physics will play an important role on ITER where confined alpha particles will affect plasma dynamics and overall confinement. Fast ion collective Thomson scattering (CTS) using gyrotrons has the potential to meet the need for measuring the spatially localized velocity distributions of confined fast ions in ITER. Currently, CTS experiments are performed at TEXTOR using a 150 kW, 0.2 s, 110 GHz gyrotron and a receiver upgraded at the Riso\ National Laboratory. The gyrotron and receiver optics have also been upgraded for rapid scanning during a plasma shot. The receiver consists of a nine-mirror quasioptical transmission line including a universal polarizer and a 42-channel data acquisition system, which allows complete coverage of the double sideband scattered spectrum for localized (∼10 cm) time resolved (4 ms) measurements of the ion velocity distribution. At ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) a similar 50-channel CTS receiver has been installed. This CTS system will use the 105 GHz frequency of a dual frequency gyrotron. The gyrotron is presently being commissioned. CTS campaigns are scheduled for the summer of 2006 with a probe power of up to 1 MW for 10 s. This report presents the alignment of the quasioptical transmission line, calibration, and gyrotron tuning of the TEXTOR and AUG CTS systems. We will also review the progress on the design of the proposed fast ion CTS diagnostic for ITER. It is envisaged that scattered radiation from two 60 GHz probe beams launched from the low field side midplane port will be received by two arrays of receivers located on the low and high field sides of the plasma. This geometry will allow the ion velocity distribution near perpendicular and near parallel to the magnetic field to be measured in ten or more spatial locations covering the full plasma cross section. The temporal resolution can be significantly better than the required 100 ms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the challenge of measuring the fuel ion ratio in the core (ρ<0.3) of ITER, a coordinated effort aiming at developing diagnostic techniques has been initiated. The investigated techniques are novel uses or further development of existing methods such as charge exchange recombination spectrometry, neutron spectrometry, and collective Thomson scattering. An overview of the work on the three diagnostic techniques is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic systems for measuring fast ions in TEXTOR and ASDEX Upgrade are described in this article. Both systems use millimeter waves generated by gyrotrons as probing radiation and the scattered radiation is detected with heterodyne receivers having 40 spectral channels at TEXTOR and 50 spectral channels at ASDEX Upgrade. The antenna patterns of probe and receiver, both steerable, determine size and location of the measuring volume, and the direction of the resolved fast ion velocity. With overmoded transmission lines, consisting of waveguides and quasioptical mirrors, the antenna patterns depend on the alignment of the entire transmission line. Alignment is aided by visible laser beams relayed by small optical mirrors, inserted in the quasioptical mirrors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inertial electrostatic confinement offers a relatively simple and cost-effective means of generating fusion plasmas for research and industrial applications. Here, we present the experimental setup and discharge characteristics of the inertial electrostatic confinement device at the Dept. of Physics, Technical Univ. of Denmark. Special features of this setup include a cylindrical anode and the novel use of 3D printed soccerball-like cathode grids of different sizes. Measurements with these grids show 25% higher fusion neutron rates than with manually manufactured grids with larger wire spacings. Additionally, we observe significantly higher neutron rates with smaller grids, with spherical rather than cylindrical cathodes, and when using the vacuum chamber, rather than a second spherical grid, as the anode. Ion–orbit simulations predict a core density in the ion distribution in good agreement with optical measurements, confirming that asymmetries in the cathode grid potential prevent a fully convergent ion flow. The simulations also demonstrate that the asymmetry of the electric field induced by the voltage stalk lowers the characteristic ion recirculation by a factor of four, and we discuss measures to circumvent this. Comparing measurements and simulations conducted with a spherical and cylindrical grid reveals tentative evidence that fusion reactivity is highly core-localized, pointing to ion–neutral fusion as the dominant reaction. We also quantify the thermionic and impact-induced secondary electron emission in the device, showing that only the latter can potentially suppress the ion current during normal operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fusion plasma composition measurements by collective Thomson scattering (CTS) were demonstrated in recent proof-of-principle measurements in TEXTOR [S. B. Korsholm et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 165004 (2011)]. Such measurements rely on the ability to resolve and interpret ion cyclotron structure in CTS spectra. Here, we extend these techniques to enable temporally resolved plasma composition measurements by CTS in TEXTOR, and we discuss the prospect for such measurements with newly installed hardware upgrades for the CTS system on ASDEX Upgrade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is developed to perform plasma composition and ion temperature measurements across the plasma minor radius in TEXTOR based on ion cyclotron structures in collective Thomson scattering spectra. By gradually moving the scattering volume, we obtain measurements across the outer midplane of the plasma. Results for the ion temperature are compared with ion temperatures measured by active charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the development and first results of a receiver system for the collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic at TEXTOR with frequency resolution in the megahertz range or better. The improved frequency resolution expands the diagnostic range and utility of CTS measurements in general and is a prerequisite for measurements of ion Bernstein wave signatures in CTS spectra. The first results from the new acquisition system are shown to be consistent with theory and with simultaneous measurements by the standard receiver system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic installed on ASDEX Upgrade uses millimeter waves generated by the newly installed 1 MW dual frequency gyrotron as probing radiation at 105 GHz. It measures backscattered radiation with a heterodyne receiver having 50 channels (between 100 and 110 GHz) to resolve the one-dimensional velocity distribution of the confined fast ions. The steerable antennas will allow different scattering geometries to fully explore the anisotropic fast ion distributions at different spatial locations. This paper covers the capabilities and operational limits of the diagnostic. It then describes the commissioning activities carried out to date. These activities include gyrotron studies, transmission line alignment, and beam pattern measurements in the vacuum vessel. Overlap experiments in near perpendicular and near parallel have confirmed the successful alignment of the system. First results in near perpendicular of scattered spectra in a neutral beam injection (NBI) and ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) plasma (minority hydrogen) on ASDEX Upgrade have shown evidence of ICRH heating phase of hydrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physics feasibility study [H. Bindslev et al., ITER Report Contract No. EFDA 01.654, 2003, www.risoe.dk/euratom/CTS/ITER] concludes that the frequency option below the electron cyclotron resonance was the only system capable of meeting the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) measurement requirements for the fusion alphas, with present or near term technology. This article presents the design of the collective Thomson scattering diagnostic for ITER at the 60 GHz range. The system is capable of measuring the fast ion distribution parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field at different radial locations simultaneously. The design is robust technologically with no moveable components near the plasma. The article includes the upgrade requirements to provide temporally and spatially resolved measurements of the fuel ion ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostic is installed at Wendelstein 7-X for ion temperature measurements in the plasma core. The diagnostic utilizes 140 GHz gyrotrons usually used for electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) as a source of probing radiation. The CTS diagnostic uses a quasi-optical transmission line covering a distance of over 40 m. The transmission line is shared between the ECRH system and the CTS diagnostic. Here we elaborate on the design, installation, and alignment of the CTS diagnostic and present the first measurements at Wendelstein 7-X. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) measurements provide information about the composition and velocity distribution of confined ion populations in fusion plasmas. The bulk ion part of the CTS spectrum is dominated by scattering off fluctuations driven by the motion of thermalized ion populations. It thus contains information about the ion temperature, rotation velocity, and plasma composition. To resolve the bulk ion region and access this information, we installed a fast acquisition system capable of sampling rates up to 12.5 GS/s in the CTS system at ASDEX Upgrade. CTS spectra with frequency resolution in the range of 1 MHz are then obtained through direct digitization and Fourier analysis of the CTS signal. We here describe the design, calibration, and operation of the fast receiver system and give examples of measured bulk ion CTS spectra showing the effects of changing ion temperature, rotation velocity, and plasma composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anomalous scattering of high power millimetre waves from gyrotrons at 140 and 110 GHz is investigated for plasma with rotating islands at TEXTOR. The magnetic field and plasma density influence the spectral content of the scattered waves and their power levels significantly. Anomalous strong scattering occurs in two density regimes, one at low densities and one at high densities, that also depend on the magnetic field. The two regimes are separated by a quiescent regime without anomalous scattering. Investigations suggest that scattering in the high-density regime is generated at the low-field side intersection of the gyrotron beam and the island position. The transition from the quiescent regime to the high-density regime occurs when the gyrotron frequency is twice the upper hybrid frequency at this position. There is some evidence that the scattering in the low-density regime is generated near the plasma centre. Under this assumption all the observed scattering is generated when the gyrotron frequency is near or below twice the upper hybrid frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiation from magnetized plasmas is in general elliptically polarized. In order to convert the elliptical polarization to linear polarization, mirrors with grooved surfaces are currently employed in our collective Thomson scattering diagnostic at ASDEX Upgrade. If these mirrors can be substituted by birefringent windows, the microwave receivers can be designed to be more compact at lower cost. Sapphire windows (a-cut) as well as grooved high density polyethylene windows can serve this purpose. The sapphire window can be designed such that the calculated transmission of the wave energy is better than 99%, and that of the high density polyethylene can be better than 97%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Localized measurements of the fast ion velocity distribution function and the plasma composition measurements are of significant interest for the fusion community. Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics allow such measurements with spatial and temporal resolution. Localized measurements require a good alignment of the optical path in the transmission line. Monitoring the alignment during the experiment greatly benefits the confidence in the CTS measurements. An in situ technique for the assessment of the elevation angle alignment of the receiver is developed. Using the CTS diagnostic on TEXTOR without a source of probing radiation in discharges with sawtooth oscillations, an elevation angle misalignment of 0.9° was found with an accuracy of 0.25°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast-ion Da (FIDA) and collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics provide indirect measurements of fastion velocity distribution functions in magnetically confined plasmas. Here we present the first prescription for velocity-space tomographic inversion of CTS and FIDA measurements that can use CTS and FIDA measurements together and that takes uncertainties in such measurements into account. Our prescription is general and could be applied to other diagnostics. We demonstrate tomographic reconstructions of an ASDEX Upgrade beam ion velocity distribution function. First, we compute synthetic measurements from two CTS views and two FIDA views using a TRANSP/NUBEAM simulation, and then we compute joint tomographic inversions in velocity-space from these. The overall shape of the 2D velocity distribution function and the location of the maxima at full and half beam injection energy are well reproduced in velocity-space tomographic inversions, if the noise level in the measurements is below 10%. Our results suggest that 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions can be directly inferred from fast-ion measurements and their uncertainties, even if the measurements are taken with different diagnostic methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong scattering of high-power millimeter waves at 140 GHz has been shown to take place in heating and current-drive experiments at TEXTOR when a tearing mode is present in the plasma. The scattering signal is at present supposed to be generated by the parametric decay instability. Here we describe the heterodyne detection system used to characterize the newly discovered signal measured at TEXTOR, and we present spectral shapes in which the signal can appear under different conditions. The radiation is collected by the receiver through a quasi-optical transmission line that is independent of the electron cyclotron resonance heating transmission line, and so the scattering geometry is variable. The signal is detected with 42 frequency channels ranging from 136 to 142 GHz. We demonstrate that the large signal does not originate from gyrotron spurious radiation. The measured signal agrees well with independent backscattering radiometer data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compute tomographies of 2D fastion velocity distribution functions from synthetic collective Thomson scattering (CTS) and fastion Dα (FIDA)1Dmeasurements using a newreconstruction prescription. Contradicting conventional wisdom we demonstrate that one single 1D CTS or FIDAviewsuffices to compute accurate tomographies of arbitrary 2D functions under idealized conditions. Under simulated experimental conditions, single-view tomographies do not resemble the original fastion velocity distribution functions but nevertheless show their coarsest features. For CTS or FIDA systems with many simultaneous views on the same measurement volume, the resemblance improves with the number of available views, even if the resolution in each view is varied inversely proportional to the number of views, so that the total number of measurements in all views is the same. With a realistic four-view system, tomographies of a beam ion velocity distribution function at ASDEX Upgrade reproduce the general shape of the function and the location of the maxima at full and half injection energy of the beam ions. By applying our method to real many-view CTS or FIDA measurements, one could determine tomographies of 2D fastion velocity distribution functions experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present the design of the fast-ion collective Thomson scattering receiver for millimeter wave radiation installed at ASDEX Upgrade, a tokamak for fusion plasma experiments. The receiver can detect spectral power densities of a few eV against the electron cyclotron emission background on the order of 100 eV under presence of gyrotron stray radiation that is several orders of magnitude stronger than the signal to be detected. The receiver down converts the frequencies of scattered radiation (100-110 GHz) to intermediate frequencies (IF) (4.5-14.5 GHz) by heterodyning. The IF signal is divided into 50 IF channels tightly spaced in frequency space. The channels are terminated by square-law detector diodes that convert the signal power into DC voltages. We present measurements of the transmission characteristics and performance of the main receiver components operating at mm-wave frequencies (notch, bandpass, and lowpass filters, a voltage-controlled variable attenuator, and an isolator), the down-converter unit, and the IF components (amplifiers, bandpass filters, and detector diodes). Furthermore, we determine the performance of the receiver as a unit through spectral response measurements and find reasonable agreement with the expectation based on the individual component measurements [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notch filters are integrated in plasma diagnostic systems to protect millimeter-wave receivers from intensive stray radiation. Here we present a design of a notch filter with a center frequency of 140 GHz, a rejection bandwidth of ∼900 MHz, and a typical insertion loss below 2 dB in the passband of ±9 GHz. The design is based on a fundamental rectangular waveguide with eight cylindrical cavities coupled by T-junction apertures formed as thin slits. Parameters that affect the notch performance such as physical lengths and conductor materials are discussed. The excited resonance mode in the cylindrical cavities is the fundamental TE11. The performance of the constructed filter is measured using a vector network analyzer monitoring a total bandwidth of 30 GHz. We compare the measurements with numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) system has been constructed at LHD making use of the high power electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system in Large Helical Device (LHD). The necessary features for CTS, high power probing beams and receiving beams, both with well defined Gaussian profile and with the fine controllability, are endowed in the ECRH system. The 32 channel radiometer with sharp notch filter at the front end is attached to the ECRH system transmission line as a CTS receiver. The validation of the CTS signal is performed by scanning the scattering volume. A new method to separate the CTS signal from background electron cyclotron emission is developed and applied to derive the bulk and high energy ion components for several combinations of neutral beam heated plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast ion physics will play an important role for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER), where confined alpha particles will affect and be affected by plasma dynamics and thereby have impacts on the overall confinement. A fast ion collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic using gyrotrons operated at 60 GHz will meet the requirements for spatially and temporally resolved measurements of the velocity distributions of confined fast alphas in ITER by evaluating the scattered radiation (CTS signal). While a receiver antenna on the low field side of the tokamak, resolving near perpendicular (to the magnetic field) velocity components, has been enabled, an additional antenna on the high field side (HFS) would enable measurements of near parallel (to the magnetic field) velocity components. A compact design solution for the proposed mirror system on the HFS is presented. The HFS CTS antenna is located behind the blankets and views the plasma through the gap between two blanket modules. The viewing gap has been modified to dimensions 30×500 mm2 to optimize the CTS signal. A 1:1 mock-up of the HFS mirror system was built. Measurements of the beam characteristics for millimeter-waves at 60 GHz used in the mock-up agree well with the modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) has the capabilities to measure phase space densities of fast ion populations in ITER resolved in configuration space, in velocity space, and in time. In the CTS system proposed for ITER, probing radiation at 60 GHz generated by two 1 MW gyrotrons is scattered in the plasma and collected by arrays of receivers. The transmission lines from the gyrotrons to the plasma and from the plasma to the receivers contain several quasioptical mirrors among other components. These are designed to produce astigmatic beam patterns in the plasma where the beam shapes will have a direct impact on the signal strength of the diagnostic, the spatial resolution, and the robustness of probe and receiver beam overlap against density excursions. The first mirror has a line of sight to the plasma and is thus exposed to severe neutron streaming. The present neutronics and thermomechanical modeling of a first mirror on the high field side indicates that the mirror curvature may warp due to heating. This may alter the beam quality, and therefore, thermal effects have to be accounted for during the design of the mirror. The modeling further demonstrates that thin mirrors are superior to thick mirrors from a thermomechanical point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An electron cyclotron emission (ECE) receiver inside the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) transmission line has been brought into operation. The ECE is extracted by placing a quartz plate acting as a Fabry–Perot interferometer under an angle inside the electron cyclotron wave (ECW) beam. ECE measurements are obtained during high power ECRH operation. This demonstrates the successful operation of the diagnostic and, in particular, a sufficient suppression of the gyrotron component preventing it from interfering with ECE measurements. When integrated into a feedback system for the control of plasma instabilities this line-of-sight ECE diagnostic removes the need to localize the instabilities in absolute coordinates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High resolution frequency measurements of the 110 GHz gyrotron at TEXTOR and the 105 GHz mode of the two-frequency gyrotron (Odissey-1) at ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) have been made in support of fast ion collective Thomson scattering diagnostics. Measurements were done by harmonic heterodyne methods using both fast Fourier transform spectroscopy with digital oscilloscopes and fast scanning spectrum analyzers. Accurate frequencies were obtained with a frequency counter. At TEXTOR, at 180 kW forward power the starting frequency was 109.970±0.005 GHz and chirped down as much as 27 MHz depending on the duty factor. At AUG, at 500 kW forward power the frequency started at 104.786 GHz and chirped down 104 MHz, with 90% of the chirp occurring in the first 100 ms. Plasma perturbation of the TEXTOR gyrotron was observed when both ion cyclotron resonance heating antennas and neutral beam injection were operating, producing modulation at 29 and 58 MHz in the gyrotron output. Each gyrotron was observed to have an instrumental measurement limited linewidth of 120 kHz full width at half maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report on a study of the feasibility of measuring the fast ion phase space distribution in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) by collective Thomson scattering (CTS). The study covers the full range of potential probe frequencies from gyrotron based millimeter waves to the infrared of the CO2 laser. It is assessed whether the systems can meet the ITER measurement requirements and which technological developments may be required. The relative merits of the systems are compared. The study reveals that a CTS system based on a 60 GHz probe has the highest diagnostic potential, and is the only system expected to be able to meet all the ITER fast ion measurement requirements with existing or near term technology. With modest additions this system may also provide measurements of the fuel ion ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]