Electron Cyclotron Emission Radiometer Research Articles

Edge Thomson scattering diagnostic with compact polychromators on the HL-3 Tokamak

The edge Thomson scattering (ETS) diagnostic with compact polychromators on the HL-3 Tokamak was developed recently. The energy and repetition frequency of the Nd: YAG laser are 2.0 J and 30 Hz, respectively. The laser beam propagates vertically through the plasma region and the scattered light is observed horizontally. The projected scattering region at the plasma midplane is from 0.6 < r/a < 1.0. The 5-channel compact polychromator (width 432 mm, depth 472 mm and height 88 mm) is developed to measure the Thomson scattering spectra. Modular design in the power supply and the amplifier circuits simplifies the assembly and maintenance of the polychromator. By using the new narrow band filters with cut-off depth larger than OD 4, the stray light resulted from Nd: YAG laser has been suppressed by the polychromator. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) range of each channel is from 10 to 200 depending on plasma parameters. The designed electron temperature measurement range is from 5 to 1000 eV and electron density measurement range is from 5 × 1018 to 1 × 1020 m-3. New measurement results of electron temperature by ETS are compared with that from the electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer. The time evolution of ETS and ECE matches with each other in different plasma discharges. Combined with the data from the core Thomson scattering diagnostic system, the plasma electron temperature profile on the HL-3 tokamak is presented for the first time.

Non-monotonic radial structures of fluctuating temperatures and densities associated with fishbone activities in KSTAR

General characteristics of a fishbone mode in KSTAR are investigated. Fishbone activities are observed with a Mirnov coil, an electron cyclotron emission radiometer (from the core to the edge of plasmas) and an beam emission spectroscopy system (core or edge plasmas) which are measuring fluctuations of poloidal magnetic fields, electron temperatures, and densities, respectively. Temporal evolutions of these fluctuations are similar to the observations from other tokamaks. An interesting and notable feature found in KSTAR fishbone modes is that radial coherence structures of electron temperature and density with respect to magnetic fluctuations are non-monotonic that they have a local minimum at r/a∼0.7 and a maximum at r/a∼0.9 in addition to the usual global peak near the q = 1 surface, where r/a is the normalized minor radius and q is the safety factor. Furthermore, the associated temporal evolution of the electron temperatures in slow-time scale, i.e., less than 1 kHz, with the fishbone activities show that there exist a drop in temperature or increase in temperature depending on inside or outside the q = 1 surface, respectively, from the core to the edge plasmas except that there are almost no temperature changes in the intermediate region which seems to be correlated with the non-monotonic coherence profile. Such a non-monotonic structure and the slow temporal evolution of temperatures are explained with barely trapped resonating fast ions with the banana orbit widths of the order of the minor radius, so that they transit the core and the edge regions simultaneously without trespassing the mid-plane intermediate region.

DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWED WAWEGUIDE SYSTEM FOR MICROWAVE DIAGNOSTICS IN URAGAN-2M STELLARATOR

This paper presents initial proposal for the development of quasi-optical (QO) microwave technology for Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) and reflectometry diagnostics in the Uragan-2M (U-2M) stellarator. For the existed ECE radiometer systems and for the operational plasma parameters of U-2M new quasi-optical beam separation dichroic filter is designed. For such filter the mechanical parameters and performed attenuation characteristic are calculated. Frontend antenna/splitter system for the combined ECE/reflectometry radiation detection is presented. As an example, QO beam pattern for the ECE receiving antenna is numerically calculated.

Analysis method for calculating radial correlation length of electron temperature turbulence from correlation electron cyclotron emission radiometer.

The radial correlation length (Lr) is one of the essential quantities to measure in order to more fully characterize and understand turbulence and anomalous transport in magnetic fusion plasmas. The analysis method for calculating Lr of electron temperature (Te) turbulence from correlation electron cyclotron emission (correlation ECE or CECE) radiometer measurements has not been fully developed partly due to the fact that the turbulent electron temperature fluctuations are generally imbedded in much larger amplitude thermal noise, which leads to a greatly reduced cross correlation coefficient (ϱ) between two spatially separated ECE signals. This work finds that this ϱ reduction factor due to thermal noise is a function of the local relative temperature fluctuation power and CECE system bandwidths of intermediate and video frequencies, independent of radial separations. This indicates that under the approximation of constant relative temperature fluctuation power for a small radial range of local CECE measurements, the original shape of ϱ as a function of radial separation without thermal noise is preserved in the CECE data with thermal noise present. For Te turbulence with a Gaussian radial wavenumber spectrum, a fit function using the product of Gaussian and sinusoidal functions is derived for calculating Lr. This analysis method has been numerically tested using simulated ECE radiometer data over a range of parameters. Using this method, the experimental temperature turbulence correlation length Lr in a DIII-D L-mode plasma is found to be ∼10 times the local ion gyroradius.

Investigating the effect of density variation on pitch angle scattering events of runaway electrons as observed through electron cyclotron emission diagnostic at Aditya-upgrade tokamak.

Nascent observations about the influence of kinetic instabilities on electron cyclotron emission (ECE) from runaway electrons (REs) have been detected and explored at the Aditya-Upgrade (Aditya-U) tokamak. The developed broadband ECE radiometer system offers wideband measurements by integrating several radio frequency units with a fixed intermediate frequency receiver with multiple channels, which is a novel approach to meet the needs of the localized measurements at various toroidal fields and extend the system dynamic range. The low density (ne ≤ 1 × 10-19m-3) plasma discharges at Aditya-U are consistently accompanied by a 20%-40% increase in the ECE radiometer signal amplitude within 100 µs and sporadic step-like modulations. The Pitch Angle Scattering (PAS) of REs induced by kinetic instabilities is a potential candidate for their occurrence. This steep jump in the radiometer signals was detected due to its high temporal resolution of 10 µs. A "PREDICT" code that employs the relativistic test particle model validates these experimental findings of the radiometer diagnostic for the first time for Aditya-U tokamak. Preliminary observations of the ECE radiometer signals also show that additional gas puffs can be used to vary the trigger timings of such PAS events or even lead to their complete avoidance.

Edge turbulence measurements in L-mode and I-mode at ASDEX Upgrade

The I-mode confinement regime is promising for future reactor operation due to high energy confinement without high particle confinement. However, the role of edge turbulence in creating I-mode's beneficial transport properties is still unknown. New measurements of edge turbulence (ρpol=0.9−1.0) in L-modes and I-modes at low and high densities at ASDEX Upgrade are presented in this paper. A high radial resolution correlation electron cyclotron emission radiometer measures the broadband turbulence throughout the L-mode and I-mode edge and pedestal. The weakly coherent mode (WCM) is measured in both L-mode and I-mode near the last closed flux surface with Te fluctuation levels of 2.3%–4.2%, with a frequency shift between the two phases related to a deeper Er well in I-mode. An neTe phase diagnostic captures a change of the WCM neTe phase between L-mode and I-mode from −171° to −143°. The thermal He beam diagnostic measures a WCM wavenumber range of −0.5 to −1.0 cm−1. A low-frequency edge oscillation (LFEO) appears in the I-mode phase of these discharges and displays coupling to the WCM, but the LFEO does not appear in the L-mode phase. Linear gyrokinetic simulations of the outer core and pedestal top turbulence indicate that while the dominant turbulent modes in the outer core are ion directed and electrostatic, the turbulence becomes increasingly electron directed and electromagnetic with increasing radius. Collisionality is not found to impact characteristics of the L-mode and I-mode edge turbulence with respect to the presence of the WCM; however, the quality of global confinement decreases with collisionality.

The radial phase variation of reversed-shear and toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes in DIII-D

The eigenfunction of an instability contains information about energy flow in the wave. In this study, the amplitude and phase of electron cyclotron emission radiometer data from hundreds of DIII-D reversed shear Alfvén eigenmodes (RSAE) and toroidicity-induced Alfvén eigenmodes (TAE) are analyzed along the outboard horizontal midplane. The radial phase profile can be flat, linearly rising or falling, convex or concave; in other words, a wide variety of shapes is observed. For a particular mode, often the radial phase profile remains approximately constant as the mode evolves in time but sometimes it changes rapidly. Many TAEs and some RSAEs have phase profiles that are rather flat where the mode amplitude is largest but rise steadily by at large major radius. Rapid phase changes are observed when the frequencies of an RSAE and TAE overlap and the modes couple. The phase profile depends weakly on the fast-ion gradient that would appear in the absence of wave-induced transport. Linear and quadratic fits to the phase profiles, together with many plasma parameters, are assembled into RSAE and TAE databases. In both cases, large variability is observed. For RSAEs, the strongest phase dependencies are on electron temperature T e, RSAE mode frequency, and the density of carbon impurities. For TAEs, the strongest dependencies are on beam power and major radius of the mode. In general, the average RSAE radial phase profile is essentially flat but the TAE profile has non-zero slope and curvature.

Plasma diagnostic systems and methods used on the stellarator TJ-II

The TJ-II is a heliac-type stellarator device with major radius of 1.5 m and averaged minor radius ⩽0.22 m that has been operated at CIEMAT, Madrid since 1998. Its full magnetic field is created by a system of poloidal, central, toroidal and vertical field coils, thus it possesses a fully 3-dimensional plasma structure and a bean-shaped plasma cross-section. Although this results in a complicated vacuum-vessel layout, it has excellent port access for diagnostics (96 portholes). During its initial operational phase, it was equipped with a limited set of essential diagnostics. Since then, a broad variety and large number of both passive and active diagnostics have been installed. The former include Hα monitors, light spectrometers, an electron cyclotron emission radiometer, X-ray filter monitors, neutral particle analysers, magnetic diagnostics, as well as cameras, among others, while the latter include various laser, atomic and ion beam based diagnostics, microwave probe beams, Langmuir probes plus impurity injection techniques. In this paper, after describing the TJ-II stellarator, its heating and fuelling systems, the diagnostic systems employed are outlined and discussed briefly here. Finally, results obtained with selected systems are highlighted.

New, improved analysis of correlation ECE data to accurately determine turbulent electron temperature spectra and magnitudes (invited).

Turbulent electron temperature fluctuation measurement using a correlation electron cyclotron emission (CECE) radiometer has become an important diagnostic for studying energy transport in fusion plasmas, and its use is widespread in tokamaks (DIII-D, ASDEX Upgrade, Alcator C-Mod, Tore Supra, EAST, TCV, HL-2A, etc.). The CECE diagnostic typically performs correlation analysis between two closely spaced (within the turbulent correlation length) ECE channels that are dominated by uncorrelated thermal noise emission. This allows electron temperature fluctuations embedded in the thermal noise to be revealed and fluctuation level and spectra determined. We have demonstrated a new, improved CECE coherency-based analysis for calculating the temperature fluctuation frequency spectrum and level, which has been verified both numerically through the simulation of synthetic ECE radiometer data and through analysis of experimental data from the CECE system on DIII-D. The new formulation places coherency-based analysis on a firm foundational footing and corrects some currently published methodologies. This new method accurately accounts for bias error in the coherence function and correctly calculates noise levels for a fixed data record length. It provides excellent accuracy in determining temperature fluctuation level (e.g., <10% error) even for a small realization number in the ensemble average. The method also has a smaller uncertainty (i.e., error bar) in the power spectrum when compared to the more standard cross-power method when evaluated at low coherency. Direct calculation of system noise level using correlation between randomized intermediate frequency signals is recommended.

Fast modulating electron cyclotron emission (FMECE) diagnostic for tokamaks.

Utilizing variable-frequency channels, e.g., yttrium iron garnet (YIG) bandpass filters, in the intermediate frequency (IF) section of an electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer facilitates flexibility in the volume viewed by the ECE channels as well as high resolution electron temperature and temperature fluctuation measurements in tokamaks. Fast modulating electron cyclotron emission (FMECE), a stand-alone IF section with eight channels, is a novel application of YIG filters for real-time electron temperature gradient and gradient scale length measurements. Key to FMECE is a simultaneous input/output data acquisition unit, as well as a modified type of YIG filters, which is capable of fast switching of their center (set) frequencies with a frequency slew rate of 600 µs/GHz. A new FMECE has been implemented and tested on the DIII-D tokamak, demonstrating its capability in real-time gradient measurements. The data presented here shows that FMECE can identify flattening in the electron temperature profile; the latter can be used as a sensor for real time monitoring and control of plasma instabilities. Implementation and application are planned for the EAST tokamak.

Active control of electron cyclotron emission radiometer channel frequencies for improved electron temperature measurements.

As advanced scenarios are developed for tokamak operations, the demand for flexibility of the electron cyclotron emission (ECE) channels' locations has increased. The tunable feature of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) filters provides this spatial flexibility. Here, we present a method of performing ECE measurements on fixed flux surfaces instead of fixed frequencies. This is achieved by adjusting YIG filters utilized in the intermediate frequency section to frequencies associated with flux surfaces in regions of interest during the discharge. The key components are the application of tunable YIG filters and a control program that calculates the filter settings using flux information from real-time reconstruction equilibria (EFIT). This fast procedure facilitates Te measurements in regions of interest to investigate plasma dynamic behaviors.

Bayesian modeling of microwave radiometer calibration on the example of the Wendelstein 7-X electron cyclotron emission diagnostic.

This paper reports about a novel approach to the absolute intensity calibration of an electron cyclotron emission (ECE) spectroscopy system. Typically, an ECE radiometer consists of tens of separated frequency channels corresponding to different plasma locations. An absolute calibration of the overall diagnostic including near plasma optics and transmission line is achieved with blackbody sources at LN2 temperature and room temperature via a hot/cold calibration mirror unit. As the thermal emission of the calibration source is typically a few thousand times lower than the receiver noise temperature, coherent averaging over several hours is required to get a sufficient signal to noise ratio. A forward model suitable for any radiometer calibration using the hot/cold method and a periodic switch between them has been developed and used to extract the voltage difference between the hot and cold temperature source via Bayesian analysis. In contrast to the classical analysis which evaluates only the reference temperatures, the forward model takes into account intermediate effective temperatures caused by the finite beam width and thus uses all available data optimally. This allows the evaluation of weak channels where a classical analysis would not be feasible, is statistically rigorous, and provides a measurement of the beam width. By using a variance scaling factor, a model sensitive adaptation of the absolute uncertainties can be implemented, which will be used for the combined diagnostic Bayesian modeling analysis.

Simultaneous detection of neoclassical tearing mode and electron cyclotron current drive locations using electron cyclotron emission in DIII-D

Accurate real-time measurements of magnetic island and electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) locations are essential for efficient suppression of the neoclassical tearing mode (NTM). To determine these locations, many control systems rely on motional Stark effect constrained equilibria reconstruction and real-time Thomson scattering with TORBEAM current drive evaluation and therefore require time-intensive cross-calibration of at least two different diagnostics. Here we present a simpler, proof-of-concept analysis that uses only a single diagnostic (a radial array electron cyclotron emission radiometer) for the simultaneous determination of both the radial position of a magnetic island and the deposition location of ECCD. Measurements are compared with the modified Rutherford equation to demonstrate the effect of ECCD alignment on NTM suppression.

Development of ECE/ECEI diagnostics and MHD-related studies on HL-2A tokamak

A novel 60-channel electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer has been designed and tested for the measurement of electron temperature profiles on the HL-2A tokamak. This system is based on the intermediate frequency division technique, and has the features of wide working frequency range (60−90 GHz) and high temporal-spatial resolution (3 µs, 1 cm), which covers almost the entire plasma region. Also, an electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system has been developed for studying two dimensional electron temperature fluctuations. It is comprised of several front-end quasi-optical lenses, a 24 channel heterodyne imaging array with a tunable RF frequency range spanning 60−135 GHz, and a set of back-end ECEI electronics that together generate two 24×8 array images of the 2nd harmonic X-mode electron cyclotron emission from the HL-2A plasma. The measurement region can be flexibly shifted due to two independent local oscillator sources, and the field of view can be adjusted easily by changing the position of the zoom lenses as well. The temporal resolution is about 2.5 µs and the achievable spatial resolution is 1 cm. The ECE/ECEI diagnostics have been demonstrated to be powerful tools to study MHD-related physics including the multi-scale interaction between macro-scale MHD and micro-scale turbulence on the HL-2A tokamak.

Estimation of magnetic island width by the fluctuations of electron cyclotron emission radiometer on J-TEXT

The width of a magnetic island is an important parameter for the quantitative analysis of magnetohydrodynamic-related physics. An electron cyclotron emission radiometer (ECE) is a powerful tool that can be used to obtain this width, which can usually be determined from the flat temperature distribution at the O-point phase or the maxima temperature perturbation. An improved method to estimate the width of a magnetic island is proposed in this paper, and it is independent of calibration. With this method and the existing 24-channel ECE system, the width of a rotation magnetic island can be estimated. Additionally, by filtering the fluctuation ECE signal, the evolution of the magnetic island can be obtained. The results of this method are consistent with those of the integrated magnetic probe signals, which represent the relative change of the magnetic island.

Study of radial heat transport in W7-X using the transfer entropy

In this work, we analyze data obtained using the electron cyclotron emission radiometer at the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator using a relatively new technique: the transfer entropy. Thus, we detect the propagation of information and find that it occurs in a stepwise fashion: we observe both ‘trapping zones’ and radial ‘jumps’, when the information is apparently skipping over intermediate positions. Using scans of the rotational transform, we observe that the ‘trapping zones’ appear to be associated with rational surfaces. Power scan experiments show that these ‘jumps’ increase in importance when power is increased, thus enhancing the effective diffusivity. The observations are interpreted in terms of a resistive magneto-hydrodynamic model, which displays behavior similar to the experimental results. The ‘trapping zones’ are explained in terms of zonal flows associated with rational surfaces, while the ‘jumps’ are ascribed to mode coupling effects, i.e. the transmission of turbulent energy via the magnetic field.

Equilibrium Reconstruction and Integration of EFIT with Diagnoses in J-TEXT Tokamak

The EFIT program is integrated with the high resolution laser polarimeter interferometer system (POLARIS), the soft X-ray imaging diagnostic system (SXR) and the electron cyclotron emission radiometer (ECE) in the J-TEXT tokamak. Then some internal information about Faraday angle and the position of safety factor q=1 can be obtained as a constraint to EFIT. The modified EFIT code is used to calculate the internal parameters such as flux function, safety factor q, pressure and current density.

Electron cyclotron emission radiometer upgrade on the J-TEXT tokamak.

To meet experimental requirements, the J-TEXT electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostic is being upgraded. The front end antenna and transmission line have been modified and a new 8-channel W-band detecting unit has been developed. The improved ECE system will extend the frequency range from 94.5-124.5 GHz to 80.5-124.5 GHz. This will enable the system to cover the most plasma in the radius direction for BT = 1.8-2.2 T, and it even can cover almost the whole plasma range ρ = - 0.8-0.9 (minus means the high field side) at BT = 1.8 T. A new auxiliary channel bank with 8 narrow band, tunable yttrium iron garnet filters is planned to add to the ECE system. Due to observations along a major radius, perpendicular to BT, and relatively low electron temperature, Doppler and relativistic broadening are minimal and thus high spatial resolution measurements can be made at variable locations with these tunable channels.

Development of electronics and data acquisition system for independent calibration of electron cyclotron emission radiometer

Signal conditioning units (SCU) along with Multichannel Data acquisition system (DAS) are developed and installed for automatization and frequent requirement of absolute calibration of ECE radiometer system. The DAS is an indigenously developed economical system which is based on Single Board Computer (SBC). The onboard RAM memory of 64K for each channel enables the DAS for simultaneous and continuous acquisition. A Labview based graphical user interface provides commands locally or remotely to acquire, process, plot and finally save the data in binary format. The microscopic signals received from radiometer are strengthened, filtered by SCU and acquired through DAS for the set time and at set sampling frequency. Stored data are processed and analyzed offline with Labview utility. The calibration process has been performed for two hours continuously at different sampling frequency (100Hz to 1KHz) at two set of temperature like hot body and the room temperature. The detailed hardware and software design and testing results are explained in the paper.

Design of RF AGC scheme for improving dynamic range of multichannel heterodyne ECE radiometer in SST-1 Tokamak

This paper describes the design of Automatic gain control (AGC) circuit in RF receiver of a Radiometry system used for Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) measurements to determine plasma electron temperature. Based on a feed forward AGC model, the designed RF AGC circuit will enhance the dynamic range of RF receiver up to 50dB. The configured AGC circuit is an integral element of the receiver systems that provides a stable output when the input power is beyond the threshold.