Electron beam and magnetic field mapping techniques used to determine field errors in the ATF torsatron

Abstract

The beam from an electron gun was used to trace flux surfaces in the Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF) torsatron. The ATF magnetic field was run steady state at 0.1 T, and the electron beam was detected optically with an image-intensified, solid-state camera when it impinged on a phosphor-coated screen. Closed flux surfaces and islands at several low-order resonances were observed. The largest island, located at the ι= 1/2 surface, was from 5 to 6 cm in width, and its presence implied the existence of magnetic field errors. To determine if these error fields could be traced to small misalignments of the magnetic coils, a device capable of accurately measuring the radial and vertical magnetic field components of individual coil sets was placed in the center of ATF. This device allowed for a determination of the precise location of each of the coils that make up the ATF coil set. No significant coil misalignments were found. A further investigation of the coil configuration led to the identification of dipole fields in the helical field coil leads as the source of the field errors. The techniques developed in making these measurements are described in the text.