Measurements of the plasma density in the FTU tokamak by a pulsed time-of-flight X-wave refractometer

Abstract

On-line control over the plasma density in tokamaks (especially, in long-term discharges) requires reliable measurements of the averaged plasma density. For this purpose, a new method of density measurements—a pulsed time-of-flight plasma refractometry—was developed and tested in the T-11M tokamak. This method allows one to determine the averaged density from the measured time delay of nanosecond microwave pulses propagating through the plasma. For an O-wave, the measured time delay is proportional to the line-averaged density and is independent of the density profile (f≫fp) τo ≈ ko\( \tfrac{1} {{f^2 }}\mathop \smallint \limits_l \)N(xdx. A similar formula is valid for an X-wave: τX = ≈ kx\( \tfrac{{f^2 + f_c^2 }} {{(f^2 - f_c^2 )^2 }}\mathop \smallint \limits_l \)N(x)dx. Here, f is the frequency of the probing wave, fp is the plasma frequency, l= 4 a is the path length for two-pass probing in the equatorial plane, a is the plasma minor radius, kO and kX are numerical factors, fc is the electron-cyclotron frequency at the axis of the plasma column, and fp≫fc, f. Measurements of the time delay provide the same information as plasma interferometry, though they do no employ the effect of interference. When the conditions fp≫fc, f are not satisfied, the measured time delay depends on the shape of the density profile. In this case, in order to determine the average density regardless of the density profile, it is necessary to perform simultaneous measurements at several probing frequencies in order to determine the average density. In ITER (Bt ∼ 5T), a spectral window between the lower and upper cutoff frequencies in the range of 50–100 GHz can be used for pulsed time-of-flight X-wave refractometry. This appreciably simplifies the diagnostics and eliminates the problem of the first mirror. In this paper, the first results obtained in the FTU tokamak with a prototype of the ITER pulsed time-of-flight refractometer are presented. The geometry and layout of experiments similar to the planned ITER experiments are described. The density measured by pulsed time-of-flight refractometry is shown to agree well with the results obtained in FTU with a two-frequency scanning IR interferometer. The results obtained are analyzed, and the future experiments are discussed.