Characterization of a semiconductor detector and its application for ion diagnostics using a novel ion energy spectrometer

Abstract

Semiconductor ion detectors are developed and characterized for the purpose of the use for high-output and wide-energy-sensitive upgraded ion diagnostics. In particular, the theoretical basis for the simulation of the semiconductor ion-energy response along with its experimental verification using monoenergetic ion beams is investigated. High-output-current semiconductor signals ranging from one to three orders of magnitude larger than those from widely employed commercially available silicon-surface-barrier detectors are attained in the ion-energy region above 0.2 keV. These data are found to be well fitted by the developed simulation results. In order to observe ion signals alone under the complicated condition of the simultaneous incidence of ions, electrons, and x rays, we develop an upgraded electrostatic ion-energy spectrometer, having specific structures with obliquely positioned multiple grids. The combination of the installation of such a low-ion-energy-sensitive semiconductor detector and this novel-structured ion spectrometer provides a new electrostatic large-output and low-energy-sensitive ion spectrometer having no signal disturbances from the other plasma species and giving no perturbations to ambient plasma-confining magnetic fields. Accordingly, this novel compact-sized electrostatic ion spectrometer using a single-channel semiconductor collector provides temporal-evolution data on ion-energy spectra during a single plasma shot alone; therefore, this spectrometer is usefully applicable to the opportunities of the observations of ion parameters in both divertor and hot-core regions.