Collective Thomson Scattering Research Articles

Resolving the bulk ion region of millimeter-wave collective Thomson scattering spectra at ASDEX Upgrade.

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) measurements provide information about the composition and velocity distribution of confined ion populations in fusion plasmas. The bulk ion part of the CTS spectrum is dominated by scattering off fluctuations driven by the motion of thermalized ion populations. It thus contains information about the ion temperature, rotation velocity, and plasma composition. To resolve the bulk ion region and access this information, we installed a fast acquisition system capable of sampling rates up to 12.5 GS/s in the CTS system at ASDEX Upgrade. CTS spectra with frequency resolution in the range of 1 MHz are then obtained through direct digitization and Fourier analysis of the CTS signal. We here describe the design, calibration, and operation of the fast receiver system and give examples of measured bulk ion CTS spectra showing the effects of changing ion temperature, rotation velocity, and plasma composition.

Spectrum response and analysis of 77 GHz band collective Thomson scattering diagnostic for bulk and fast ions in LHD plasmas

A collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic was developed and used to measure the bulk and fast ions originating from 180 keV neutral beams in the Large Helical Device (LHD). Electromagnetic waves from a gyrotron at 77 GHz with 1 MW power output function as both the probe and electron cyclotron heating beam. To clarify the diagnostic applicability of the gyrotron in the 77 GHz frequency band, we investigated the dependence of the probe and receiver beam trajectories in plasmas with high electron densities of (4–5) × 1019 m−3 and low electron densities of (1–2) × 1019 m−3. At high density, a stray radiation component was observed in the CTS spectrum whereas it was negligibly small at low density. The CTS spectrum was measured and analysed after the in situ beam alignment using a beam scan. Qualitatively, the CTS spectrogram shows consistent response to ion temperatures of 1–2 keV for electron densities of (1–2) × 1019 m−3 and electron temperatures of 2–4 keV. The measured CTS spectrum shows an asymmetric shape at the foot of the bulk-ion region during the injection of 180 keV fast ions. This shape is explained by the fast-ion distribution in the velocity space (v‖, v⊥) based on Monte Carlo simulation results. The analysis method of the CTS spectra is used to evaluate the ion temperature and fast-ion velocity distribution from the measured CTS data.

Combination of fast-ion diagnostics in velocity-space tomographies

Fast-ion Dα (FIDA) and collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics provide indirect measurements of fast-ion velocity distribution functions in magnetically confined plasmas. Here we present the first prescription for velocity-space tomographic inversion of CTS and FIDA measurements that can use CTS and FIDA measurements together and that takes uncertainties in such measurements into account. Our prescription is general and could be applied to other diagnostics. We demonstrate tomographic reconstructions of an ASDEX Upgrade beam ion velocity distribution function. First, we compute synthetic measurements from two CTS views and two FIDA views using a TRANSP/NUBEAM simulation, and then we compute joint tomographic inversions in velocity-space from these. The overall shape of the 2D velocity distribution function and the location of the maxima at full and half beam injection energy are well reproduced in velocity-space tomographic inversions, if the noise level in the measurements is below 10%. Our results suggest that 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions can be directly inferred from fast-ion measurements and their uncertainties, even if the measurements are taken with different diagnostic methods.

Suppression of spurious mode oscillation in mega-watt 77-GHz gyrotron as a high quality probe beam source for the collective Thomson scattering in LHD

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic requires a strong probing beam to diagnose a bulk and fast ion distribution function in fusion plasmas. A mega-watt gyrotron for electron cyclotron resonance heating is used as a probing beam in the large helical device. Spurious mode oscillations are often observed during the turning on/off phase of the modulation. The frequency spectra of the 77-GHz gyrotron output power have been measured, and then one of the spurious modes, which interferes with the CTS receiver system, is identified as the TE(17,6) mode at the frequency of 74.7 GHz. The mode competition calculation indicates that the increase of the magnetic field strength at the gyrotron resonator can avoid such a spurious mode and excite only the main TE(18,6) mode. The spurious radiation at the 74.7 GHz is experimentally demonstrated to be suppressed in the stronger magnetic field than that optimized for the high-power operation.

Tomography of fast-ion velocity-space distributions from synthetic CTS and FIDA measurements

We compute tomographies of 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions from synthetic collective Thomson scattering (CTS) and fast-ion Dα (FIDA) 1D measurements using a new reconstruction prescription. Contradicting conventional wisdom we demonstrate that one single 1D CTS or FIDA view suffices to compute accurate tomographies of arbitrary 2D functions under idealized conditions. Under simulated experimental conditions, single-view tomographies do not resemble the original fast-ion velocity distribution functions but nevertheless show their coarsest features. For CTS or FIDA systems with many simultaneous views on the same measurement volume, the resemblance improves with the number of available views, even if the resolution in each view is varied inversely proportional to the number of views, so that the total number of measurements in all views is the same. With a realistic four-view system, tomographies of a beam ion velocity distribution function at ASDEX Upgrade reproduce the general shape of the function and the location of the maxima at full and half injection energy of the beam ions. By applying our method to real many-view CTS or FIDA measurements, one could determine tomographies of 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions experimentally.

Elevation angle alignment of quasi optical receiver mirrors of collective Thomson scattering diagnostic by sawtooth measurements

Localized measurements of the fast ion velocity distribution function and the plasma composition measurements are of significant interest for the fusion community. Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics allow such measurements with spatial and temporal resolution. Localized measurements require a good alignment of the optical path in the transmission line. Monitoring the alignment during the experiment greatly benefits the confidence in the CTS measurements. An in situ technique for the assessment of the elevation angle alignment of the receiver is developed. Using the CTS diagnostic on TEXTOR without a source of probing radiation in discharges with sawtooth oscillations, an elevation angle misalignment of 0.9° was found with an accuracy of 0.25°.

Temporally resolved plasma composition measurements by collective Thomson scattering in TEXTOR (invited)

Fusion plasma composition measurements by collective Thomson scattering (CTS) were demonstrated in recent proof-of-principle measurements in TEXTOR [S. B. Korsholm et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 165004 (2011)]. Such measurements rely on the ability to resolve and interpret ion cyclotron structure in CTS spectra. Here, we extend these techniques to enable temporally resolved plasma composition measurements by CTS in TEXTOR, and we discuss the prospect for such measurements with newly installed hardware upgrades for the CTS system on ASDEX Upgrade.

Performance measurements of the collective Thomson scattering receiver at ASDEX Upgrade

The fast-ion collective Thomson scattering (CTS) receiver at ASDEX Upgrade can detect spectral power densities of a few eV in the millimeter-wave range against the electron cyclotron emission (ECE) background on the order of 100 eV under presence of gyrotron stray radiation that is several orders of magnitude stronger than the signal to be detected. The receiver heterodynes the frequencies of scattered radiation (100–110 GHz) to intermediate frequencies (IF) (4.5–14.5 GHz). The IF signal is divided into 50 IF channels tightly spaced in frequency space which are terminated by square-law Schottky detector diodes. The performance of the entire receiver is determined by the main receiver components operating at mm-wave frequencies (notch-, bandpass- and lowpass filters, a voltage-controlled variable attenuator, and an isolator), a mixer, and the IF components (amplifiers, band-pass filters, and detector diodes). We discuss here the design of the entire receiver, focussing on its performance as a unit. The receiver has been disassembled, and the performance of its individual components has been characterized. Based on these individual component measurements we predict the spectral response of the receiver assembled as a unit. The measured spectral response of the assembled receiver is in reasonable agreement with this prediction.

The prospect for fuel ion ratio measurements in ITER by collective Thomson scattering

We show that collective Thomson scattering (CTS) holds the potential to become a new diagnostic principle for measurements of the fuel ion ratio, nT/nD, in ITER. Fuel ion ratio measurements will be important for plasma control and machine protection in ITER. Measurements of ion cyclotron structures in CTS spectra have been suggested as the basis for a new fuel ion ratio diagnostic which would be well suited for reactor environments and capable of providing spatially resolved measurements in the plasma core. Such measurements were demonstrated in recent experiments in the TEXTOR tokamak. Here we conduct a sensitivity study to investigate the potential measurement accuracy of a CTS fuel ion ratio diagnostic on ITER. The study identifies regions of parameter space in which CTS can be expected to provide useful information on plasma composition, and we find that a CTS fuel ion ratio diagnostic could meet the ITER measurement requirements for a standard ELMy H-mode discharge.

Production and diagnosis of energetic particles in FAST

The Fusion Advanced Study Torus (FAST) has been proposed as a possible European satellite facility to study fast-ion physics in deuterium plasmas under conditions relevant to a burning plasma. Energetic minority ions (H or 3He) accelerated by ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH), with dimensionless parameters close to those of fusion-born alphas in ITER, can be produced in FAST via 30 MW power ICRH minority heating. This work provides a first assessment of the extent to which the 3He fast-ion population can be diagnosed in FAST with a set of dedicated diagnostics for confined fast particles. Neutron emission spectroscopy (NES), gamma-ray spectroscopy (GRS) and collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics have been reviewed with a description of the state-of-the-art hardware and a preliminary analysis of the required lines of sight. The results of the analysis, based on numerical simulations of the spatial and energetic particle distribution function of the ICRH-accelerated ions for the standard FAST H-mode scenario, suggest that NES and GRS measurements can provide information on the fast 3He population effective tail temperature, with time resolutions in the range 20–100 ms. The proposed CTS diagnostic can measure the fast-ion parallel and perpendicular temperature with a spatial resolution of 5–10 cm and a time resolution of 10 ms. The paper provides a scientific basis for the prediction of the production and diagnosis of energetic ions in FAST.

Measurements on Fast switches and combiners (FADIS-BC) for High-Power Millimeter-wave beams based on dielectric beam splitters

An upgraded version of a quasi-optical diplexer combiner, based on a resonating system coupling two transmission lines using three Dielectric Beam Splitters, has been realized and tested. This device is principally thought to combine power coming from different transmission lines into a single output or to switch the injected power between different outputs, but it could also be used as mode filter or in line viewing system for Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) or Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostics. The design was implemented in order to link two transmission lines of the ECRH system on FTU, for power combination of two beams into a single line of the new ECRH launcher recently installed. This device is based on Dielectric Beam Splitters (DBS); it has been tested at low power in order to confirm the splitting ratio foreseen from simulation and its efficiency has been evaluated measuring the beam exiting the system. The design and the characterization of the diplexer combiner are reported in this paper.

New Power Records of Sub-Terahertz Gyrotron with Second-Harmonic Oscillation

High-power sub-terahertz pulse gyrotrons are under development in FIR FU for application to collective Thomson scattering (CTS) measurement on fusion plasmas, especially on high-density plasmas such as those produced in LHD. Recently, we achieved a new power record of 62 kW at approximately 388 GHz with second-harmonic (SH) oscillation. Following this result, we modified the electron gun of the gyrotron to couple the electron beam more strongly to another oscillation mode that has a peak coupling coefficient two times as large as that of the 62 kW mode. Oscillation tests with the new mode attained higher power of 83 kW at about 389 GHz. These results constitute new second-harmonic-oscillation power records for sub-terahertz gyrotrons.

Identification of Spurious Modes of High-Power 77-GHz Gyrotron for Collective Thomson Scattering in LHD

Identification of Spurious Modes of High-Power 77-GHz Gyrotron for Collective Thomson Scattering in LHD

Measurements of plasma composition in the TEXTOR tokamak by collective Thomson scattering

We demonstrate the use of collective Thomson scattering (CTS) for spatially localized measurements of the isotopic composition of magnetically confined fusion plasmas. The experiments were conducted in the TEXTOR tokamak by scattering millimeter-wave probe radiation off plasma fluctuations with wave vector components nearly perpendicular to the magnetic field. Under such conditions the sensitivity of the CTS spectrum to plasma composition is enhanced by the spectral signatures of the ion cyclotron motion and of weakly damped ion Bernstein waves. Recent experiments on TEXTOR demonstrated the ability to resolve these signatures in the CTS spectrum as well as their sensitivity to the ion species mix in the plasma. This paper shows that the plasma composition can be inferred from the measurements through forward modeling of the CTS spectrum. We demonstrate that spectra measured in plasmas consisting of hydrogen, deuterium and 3He can be accurately reproduced by theory and yield inferred plasma compositions consistent with expectations. The potential to use CTS for measurements of plasma composition is of significant interest since CTS is well suited for reactor environments and since there is at present no established method to measure the fuel ion density ratio in the core of a burning fusion plasma.

Comparison of measured and simulated fast ion velocity distributions in the TEXTOR tokamak

Here we demonstrate a comprehensive comparison of collective Thomson scattering (CTS) measurements with steady-state Monte Carlo simulations performed with the ASCOT and VENUS codes. The measurements were taken at a location on the magnetic axis as well as at an off-axis location, using two projection directions at each location. The simulations agree with the measurements on-axis, but for the off-axis geometries discrepancies are observed for both projection directions. For the near perpendicular projection direction with respect to the magnetic field, the discrepancies between measurement and simulations can be explained by uncertainty in plasma parameters. However, the discrepancies between measurement and simulations for the more parallel projection direction cannot be explained solely by uncertainties in plasma parameters. Here anomalous fast ion transport is a possible explanation for the discrepancy.

On velocity space interrogation regions of fast-ion collective Thomson scattering at ITER

The collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic proposed for ITER is designed to measure projected 1D fast-ion velocity distribution functions at several spatial locations simultaneously. The frequency shift of scattered radiation and the scattering geometry place fast ions that caused the collective scattering in well-defined regions in velocity space, here dubbed interrogation regions. Since the CTS instrument measures entire spectra of scattered radiation, many different interrogation regions are probed simultaneously. We here give analytic expressions for weight functions describing the interrogation regions, and we show typical interrogation regions of the proposed ITER CTS system. The backscattering system with receivers on the low-field side is sensitive to fast ions with pitch |p| = |v∥/v| < 0.5–0.9 depending on the ion energy and the frequency shift of the scattered radiation. A forward scattering system with receivers on the high-field side would be sensitive to co- and counter-passing fast ions in narrow interrogation regions with pitch |p| > 0.6–0.8. Additionally, we use weight functions to reconstruct 2D fast-ion distribution functions, given two projected 1D velocity distribution functions from simulated simultaneous measurements with the back- and forward scattering systems.

Principles of fuel ion ratio measurements in fusion plasmas by collective Thomson scattering

For certain scattering geometries collective Thomson scattering (CTS) measurements are sensitive to the composition of magnetically confined fusion plasmas. CTS therefore holds the potential to become a new diagnostic for measurements of the fuel ion ratio—i.e. the tritium to deuterium density ratio. Measurements of the fuel ion ratio will be important for plasma control and machine protection in future experiments with burning fusion plasmas. Here we examine the theoretical basis for fuel ion ratio measurements by CTS. We show that the sensitivity to plasma composition is enhanced by the signatures of ion cyclotron motion and ion Bernstein waves which appear for scattering geometries with resolved wave vectors near perpendicular to the magnetic field. We investigate the origin and properties of these features in CTS spectra and give estimates of their relative importance for fuel ion ratio measurements.

Measurements of Intrinsic Ion Bernstein Waves in a Tokamak by Collective Thomson Scattering

In this Letter we report measurements of collective Thomson scattering (CTS) spectra with clear signatures of ion Bernstein waves and ion cyclotron motion in tokamak plasmas. The measured spectra are in accordance with theoretical predictions and show clear sensitivity to variation in the density ratio of the main ion species in the plasma. Measurements with this novel diagnostic demonstrate that CTS can be used as a fuel ion ratio diagnostic in burning fusion plasma devices.

Development of Collective Thomson Scattering Diagnostic for Bulk and Fast Ions in the Large Helical Device

The collective Thomson scattering (CTS) technique has been utilized with the backscattering configuration to diagnose the bulk and fast ions in the Large Helical Device (LHD). The spectrogram of the scattered radiation presents the transient phenomena related to fast ion slowing down in auxiliary neutral beam heated plasmas. This is obtained by the broad band receiver resolving with 32 channels, while the probing beam from 77 GHz gyrotron is modulated with 50 Hz and is injected into plasmas. In the same shot, especially in low temperature plasma (Te, Ti < 1 keV), a wave excitation is also observed in a narrow frequency band. The peaks in the CTS spectrum exist between 0.5 and 1.0 GHz and are observed in both frequency sides asymmetry. For the forthcoming experiments, the feasibility of CTS diagnostics at a new port location is assessed to extend the diagnostic capability for measuring the ion velocity components. Expected spectra for scattered radiation are the same signal level as the present location from a numerical calculation.

Collective Thomson scattering of a high power electron cyclotron resonance heating beam in LHD (invited)

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) system has been constructed at LHD making use of the high power electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system in Large Helical Device (LHD). The necessary features for CTS, high power probing beams and receiving beams, both with well defined Gaussian profile and with the fine controllability, are endowed in the ECRH system. The 32 channel radiometer with sharp notch filter at the front end is attached to the ECRH system transmission line as a CTS receiver. The validation of the CTS signal is performed by scanning the scattering volume. A new method to separate the CTS signal from background electron cyclotron emission is developed and applied to derive the bulk and high energy ion components for several combinations of neutral beam heated plasmas.