Optical diagnostics for plasma physics and accelerator science: commonalities and differences

Abstract

Optical diagnostics are widely used both for experiments of plasma physics and for measurements of parameters of electron/positron beams in accelerators. The approaches applied for these often have the same methodological basis explained by the similarity of the properties of the studied phenomena. Nevertheless, these branches of physics are very specific and require special diagnostics. The possibility of closed contacts and cooperation between scientists solving similar problems in different areas of physics helps to overcome these problems. It is especially typical for BINP SB RAS known by pioneering works on electron–positron colliders and nuclear fusion. This paper describes the diagnostics that are used in plasma physics experiments, especially for plasma heating by a high-current electron beam, and contains a comparison with optical diagnostics which are recognized tools in colliders and storage rings.