Hard x-ray tomographic studies of the destruction of an energetic electron ring

Abstract

A tomography system was designed and built at the Large Plasma Device to measure the spatial distribution of hard x-ray (100 KeV-3 MeV) emissivity. The x-rays were generated when a hot electron ring was significantly disrupted by a shear Alfvén wave. The plasma is pulsed at 1 Hz (1 shot/s). A lead shielded scintillator detector with an acceptance angle defined by a lead pinhole is mounted on a rotary gimbal and used to detect the x-rays. The system measures one chord per plasma shot using only one detector. A data plane usually consists of several hundred chords. A novel Dot by Dot Reconstruction (DDR) method is introduced to calculate the emissivity profile from the line integrated data. In the experiments, there are often physical obstructions, which make measurements at certain angles impossible. The DDR method works well even in this situation. The method was tested with simulated data, and was found to be more effective than previously published methods for the specific geometry of this experiment. The reconstructed x-ray emissivity from experimental data by this method is shown.