Thomson Scattering Research Articles

Study of detached plasma profile in the divertor simulation experimental module of tandem mirror GAMMA 10/PDX

A divertor simulation experimental module (D-module) in the tandem mirror GAMMA 10/PDX was used for the study of plasma detachment. In previous studies, it was difficult to measure far-upstream plasma parameters in the D-module, and only electrostatic probes on the target plate were used to perform electron temperature and density measurements. To study the detached plasma structure, a Thomson scattering (TS) system and a microwave interferometer system have been installed to measure the inside plasma parameters of the D-module, and a movable electrostatic probe has been placed at the inlet of the D-module to measure the inlet plasma density and temperature. The TS system in the central cell observed the electron temperature and density of the core plasma simultaneously. These measurements revealed the entire density and temperature structure from the core plasma to the divertor plate. The line average electron density measured by the microwave interferometer showed a rollover behavior during detachment. The results indicated that the ionization region was located around the center of the D-module, and it appears to move upstream along the axis.

Assessment of shutdown dose rates in the ITER Collective Thomson Scattering system and in equatorial port plug 12

The ITER Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) system will be the main diagnostic responsible for measuring the velocity distribution function of fusion-born alpha particles in the plasma. As the CTS diagnostic is integrated in the equatorial port plug 12 (drawer 3), with direct apertures to the port interspace where maintenance hands-on operation will be carried out, it is essential to assess the shutdown dose rates (SDDR) in these maintenance areas. In this work, the D1S-UNED3.1.4 Monte-Carlo transport code, based on the implementation of the direct-one-step methodology in MCNP5 v1.60, was used to estimate the dose rate level 12 days (106 s) after shutdown in the port interspace. The results show that the CTS system does not contribute significantly to the SDDR in the area where hands-on maintenance is foreseen with contribution to dose rates less than 1 µSv/h. This is consistent with previous estimates, although with the most recent model of the CTS design there is a slight increase of the SDDR values. This deviation can be attributed to design changes and improved shielding modelling and/or most importantly, to statistical fluctuations of the D1S simulations. From a neutronics point of view, the increase in the SDDR falls within the range of the statistical fluctuations, and the design is still compliant with the radiation safety ALARA principle aiming at minimizing radiation doses, and there is no requirement for further design optimizations.

Model-based electron density profile estimation and control, applied to ITER

In contemporary magnetic confinement devices, the density distribution is sensed with interferometers and actuated with feedback controlled gas injection and open-loop pellet injection. This is at variance with the density control for ITER and DEMO, that will depend mainly on pellet injection as an actuator in feed-back control. This paper presents recent developments in state estimation and control of the electron density profile for ITER using relevant sensors and actuators. As a first step, Thomson scattering is included in an existing dynamic state observer. Second, model predictive control is developed as a strategy to regulate the density profile while avoiding limits associated with the total density (Greenwald limit) or gradients in the density distribution (e.g. neoclassical impurity transport). Simulations show that high quality density profile estimation can be achieved with Thomson Scattering and that the controller is capable of regulating the distribution as desired.

Structural analysis of the diagnostic rack locking in ITER lower port #8

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is a nuclear fusion research and engineering project. It is supposed to be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials and operational regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity. Front (explored in this paper) and Back diagnostic racks are used as supporting structures of the so-called ITER Divertor Thomson Scattering (DTS) Diagnostic System that is created to measure plasma characteristics. They will be attached to the lower port walls (ITER ports are used to locate diagnostic equipment and its supporting structures) through the so-called Divertor Rails. The developed design of the Front (Diagnostic) Rack locking (e.g. Rack attachment to the rails mechanism) was analyzed in this research to be consistent with thermal stresses, electromagnetic and seismic loads taking into account some specific assembly and maintenance loads including preloading under installation. The analysis of the rack locking design's resistance to the mentioned loads should prove correspondence of the suggested common rack design with the structure integrity criterions. Construction strength under the most severe loading scenario was estimated in this research and appropriate conclusions were made. It was found out that the stress criterion was not fully satisfied, so a new rack locking design concept was proposed. Its main details are also described at the end of this article.

Propagation characteristics of terahertz wave in inductively coupled plasma.

Firstly, the electron density distribution of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is measured by laser Thomson scattering (TS) method and the features of the ICP under the same experimental conditions are simulated by finite element method (FEM). The simulated results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which verifies the accuracy of the ICP generation simulation model. Secondly, the propagation characteristics of terahertz wave in ICP are measured by terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and calculated by FEM according to the electron density distribution of ICP simulated in the first step above. The high consistency between the experimental and simulation results of terahertz wave propagation characteristics in ICP further proves the accuracy of terahertz wave transmission model in plasma and the feasibility of joint simulation with ICP generation simulation model.

Reconfiguration of an Electrothermal-Arc Plasma Source for In Situ PMI Studies

An electrothermal-arc plasma source (ET-Arc) has been developed to produce transient plasma heat and particle fluxes similar to those produced by edge localized modes onto divertor plasma-facing components in tokamaks. The ET-Arc utilizes a capacitive discharge to send current through a 4-mm-diameter, 9-cm-long capillary source liner. The liner material is ablated to form a high-velocity plasma jet that impacts the target downstream. With the current discharge circuit configuration, pulse lengths are 1 to 2 ms in duration and deliver heat fluxes of 0.25 to 2.1 GW m−2. The plasma was previously characterized with optical emission spectroscopy (OES) on helium emission lines. The He I line ratios were interpreted with collisional radiative analysis to calculate ne and Te. The electron temperature and electron density ranged from Te = 1 to 5 eV and ne = 1022 to 1028 electrons/m3, respectively. Recently, the vacuum configuration and target of the ET-Arc device were modified to allow greater diagnostic access for plasma-material interaction (PMI) studies and diagnostic development. The diagnostic suite included two Tektronix high-voltage probes to measure the capacitor and discharge potentials, a discharge current monitor, Edgertronic SC1 high-speed cameras to image the discharge, and a FLIR SC4000 infrared camera to estimate heat flux on the target. The system used OES for plasma characterization, but a new Thomson scattering (TS) diagnostic has been implemented. This system is an Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)-funded, portable diagnostic package for spectroscopic measurements of ne, Te, ni, Ti,, and vi, which includes both TS and OES. Additionally, a novel digital holography (DH) surface-imaging diagnostic was implemented to measure erosion rates in situ. Results from ex situ DH characterization of stainless steel targets exposed to the ET-Arc source indicated that surface erosion of ~150 nm per shot occurred and an in situ DH characterization of similar targets was planned. The arc-triggering system will be revised and optimized to better synchronize with the laser diagnostics. Details of the reconfigured ET-Arc source are reported here.

A Set of Receiving Equipment for Detection of Collective Thomson Scattering Spectra at the Gas-Dynamic Trap (GDT) Facility

A Set of Receiving Equipment for Detection of Collective Thomson Scattering Spectra at the Gas-Dynamic Trap (GDT) Facility

Conceptual design of Thomson scattering diagnostics for the COMPASS-U tokamak.

The Thomson scattering (TS) diagnostic, one of the key diagnostics used on the tokamaks around the world, is planned for the COMPASS-U tokamak, which is recently under design and construction in the Institute of Plasma Physics in Prague, Czech Republic. This tokamak is supposed to be a world-unique, high magnetic field device with hot walls, allowing for the study of the plasma exhaust in advanced operational scenarios and testing cutting-edge technologies relevant to future fusion reactors, e.g., use of liquid metals. The core and edge TS systems are planned to be designed and operational, with a limited performance, already in the early stage of the tokamak operation. In this contribution, requirements and the most important constraints defining the TS system design are presented. The impact of both the possible collection lens location and spatial resolution on the plasma pedestal observation is simulated. Design considerations also take into account the high-resolution TS core and edge systems available from the COMPASS tokamak, which will be reused. The collection lenses will be newly built. Extension of the detection system will complete the plasma radius coverage in the future. The divertor TS is considered for later periods.

Investigation of the Thomson Scattering Influence on Electron Beam Parameters in an Energy-Recovering Linear Accelerator on the Example of MESA

Investigation of the Thomson Scattering Influence on Electron Beam Parameters in an Energy-Recovering Linear Accelerator on the Example of MESA

Structure Formation After the Era of Cosmic Matter Recombination

In an aforegoing paper (Fahr and Heyl, 2021) we have studied in physical details the event of cosmic matter recombination expected at about 400000 years after the Big Bang at cosmic photon redshifts of about zr =1000. It turned out there, that photons taken as surely cooling by permanent increase of their cosmic redshifts, while electrons and protons partly are cooled by Thomson scatter processes with photons, but partly are heated due to the Hubble expansion of the universe. It can be shown, however, that in this cosmic epoch the cooling of electrons and protons is much more effective than the heating, and that a recombination of cosmic matter to neutral H-atoms thus is unavoidable. We then show, however, that the neutral gas atoms do not couple anymore to the cosmic CMB photon field, but instead are subject only to the Hubble migration in velocity space and thus become heated again. The question then poses itself, how cosmic structure formation in a gas with decreasing density and increasing temperature should have been able to take place. Where did the galaxies and clusters of galaxies come from? Looking into the unstable, self-gravitating acoustic oscillation modes we find the answer at what cosmic times which magnitudes of self gravitating critical masses can have been produced that could have sustained till the present times.

On combining the beam path of similar wavelength lasers for dual-laser Thomson scattering.

A novel method for the path combination of two lasers with very similar wavelengths has been implemented to enable the evaluation of a dual-laser calibration Thomson scattering (TS) technique. The first experimental test of this TS technique has been performed in a RFX-mod plasma device, where, due to experimental constraints, the combination of a Nd:YAG (λ = 1064nm) and a Nd:YLF (λ = 1053nm) laser system was the only viable choice available. The method requires that the beam path of both lasers be combined into a single path with the same polarization. This presents a unique challenge due to the small difference between the two laser wavelengths. In this paper, we describe two methods for beam combination: first via a prism, eventually dismissed as unpractical, and second via a polarizing beam splitter in reverse with a dual-wavelength waveplate. We detail the optical setup, waveplate design, and successful implementation of this second method.

Design of a two-photon laser-induced fluorescence system on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST)

The neutral gas surrounding the fusion plasma in a tokamak has a significant effect upon its quality; however, it is difficult to measure the properties of neutral particles in a tokamak, such as particle density, isotopy, or temperature. Herein, we transform a recently designed horizontal Thomson scattering (TS) diagnostic system into a two-photon laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) system that measures the edge neutral density of the plasma in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). The TALIF system can measure the neutral density from 0.95 to 1.1 in normalized poloidal flux coordinates and includes 10 measurement points in the radial direction with spatial resolution of 5 mm and a temporal resolution of 1 ms at a cadence of 10/30 Hz. These two systems, TALIF and TS diagnostic, can share the same port, beam path, collection optics, and optical fibers. The horizontal TS diagnostic system can be further developed into a TV Thomson scattering (TVTS) diagnostic system via a CCD detector. The TALIF system and the TVTS diagnostic system can even share a detector. This TALIF system can play a significant role in allowing neutral particle measurement in current and future fusion tokamaks.

Design and implementation of a portable diagnostic system for Thomson scattering and optical emission spectroscopy measurements.

A diagnostic system, which has a design goal of high-portability, has been designed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This project aims at providing measurements of key plasma parameters (ne, Te, ni, Ti) for fusion-relevant devices, utilizing Thomson scattering (TS) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The innovative design employs mostly commercial off-the-shelf instrumentation and a traveling team of researchers to conduct measurements at various magnetic-confinement plasma devices. The TS diagnostic uses a Quantel Q-smart 1500 Nd:YAG laser with a 2ω harmonic generator to produce up to 850 mJ of 532nm laser pulses at 10Hz. Collection optics placed at the detection port consists of an 11 × 3 optical fiber bundle, where the TS diagnostic uses an 11 × 1 subset array of the fibers, the OES diagnostic uses another 11 fibers, and the remaining fibers are available to the host institution. The detection system is comprised of two separate IsoPlane-320 spectrometers with triple-grating turrets of various line spacing and two PI-MAX 4 intensified CCD detectors, used simultaneously to measure a broad range of ion, impurity, and electron parameters. The self-contained diagnostic package also includes a data processing and storage system. The design and initial implementation of the TS-OES diagnostic system are described. The experiments from the proof-of-principle operation of the portable package on a high density (∼2.5 × 1022m-3) and low-temperature (∼5eV) electrothermal arc source at ORNL are also discussed.

Recovery of the Two-Dimensional Ion Distribution Function in a Magnetic Mirror from Measurements of Collective Thomson Scattering Spectra

A method is proposed for tomography of the distribution function of energetic ions that are adiabatically trapped in an open magnetic trap, according to the diagnostic data by the method of collective Thomson scattering. This method is based on measurements of the scattering spectra from successive plasma cross sections corresponding to different values of the magnetic-field strength along a single line of force. It is shown that the problem of restoring the ion distribution function in the velocity space from the measurement data in this situation is reduced to an integral equation of the first kind that allows an analytical solution. Several ways to construct exact and approximate solutions of the resulting integral equation are considered.

Structural analysis of large-scale SS collecting mirrors for ITER diagnostics

ITER is a nuclear fusion research and engineering project. It is supposed to be the first fusion device designed for testing the integrated technologies, materials, and physical aspects necessary for development of the commercially available fusion-power plant. One of the important components of the project is optical diagnostic systems with collecting mirrors. These mirrors have to provide stability of optical systems under severe loads of different types that could possibly arise in the tokamak. The collecting mirrors of several ITER diagnostics have a large scale and should be installed into diagnostic ports. Thermal stress analysis of the mirror updated design is aimed to obtain deformation and rotation values of the mirrors’ reflecting surfaces in order to conduct ray tracing analysis and to edit mirrors alignment to provide correct functioning of the optical systems. The maximum temperature values of the Divertor Thomson Scattering collecting mirrors were estimated for the normal operation mode. The FE model of the second mirror takes into account all the force boundary conditions, basic kinematic boundary conditions and constraints. Boundary conditions taken for the simulation were applied on surfaces contacting with the diagnostic rack. Thermally stressed state was calculated and corresponding displacement and rotation distributions were obtained.

Electron Dynamics and Thomson Scattering for Ultra-Intense Lasers: Elliptically Polarized and OAM Beams

We investigated the classical nonlinear Thomson scattering (TS), from a single relativistic electron, generated by either: (a) an incoming plane wave monochromatic laser radiation and general elliptical polarization or (b) incoming radiations with intrinsic orbital angular momentum (OAM). Both (a) and (b) propagate along the z direction, with wave vector k0, frequency ω0, and initial phase φ0≠0 and have any intensity. Item (a) enables obtaining general electron TS Doppler frequencies and other quantities, for fusion plasmas. We explored the possibility of approximating nonlinear TS with OAM beams (Item (b)) by means of nonlinear TS with plane wave beams (Item (a)). For Item (a), a general explicit solution of the Lorentz relativistic equation and the subsequent TS are given in terms of ζ=ω0t−k0z (t denoting time). In particular, it includes the cases for linear and circular polarizations and φ0≠0 for fusion plasmas, thereby extending previous studies for φ0=0. The explicit solutions give rise to very efficient computations of electron TS Doppler frequencies, periods of trajectories, and drift velocities, and the comparisons with ab initio numerical solutions (for Item (a)) yield an excellent match. The approximate approach, using explicit solutions for Item (a), towards TS OAM (employing ab initio numerical computations for Item (b)), extending previously reported ones) yields a quite satisfactory agreement over time spans including several optical cycles, for a wide range of laser intensities, polarizations, and electron energies. The role of φ0≠0 was analyzed. A simple quantitative criterion to predict whether the agreement between the two approaches (a) and (b) would be observed over a given time span is discussed.

Optical Properties of Thomson Scattering Diagnostics Lower Window Glass under Laser Irradiation.

Tokamak diagnostic window glass is an indispensable optical medium in fusion research. The transmittance of the device affects the optical performance and accuracy of the diagnostic system. Especially, the window glass serves as the entrance of the light source while performing the sealing function for the active diagnosis method represented by Thomson scattering diagnostics. In this work, we studied the influence of the laser irradiation and tokamak discharge on the EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) Thomson scattering diagnostic borosilicate glass window. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman scattering, we found that carbon-based impurities in the device aggravated the film damage due to laser irradiation, reducing the performance of the coating of the glass. Besides, the laser and the various rays of tokamak discharge generated many point defects in the glass, increasing the light absorption of the glass. These two factors caused the glass transmittance to drop significantly (from 99.99% to 77.62%). In addition, the long-term laser irradiation primarily reduced the transmittance, while environmental rays had a minor impact on the same. This work provides valuable insights into the selection and effective use of glass in optics-based diagnostics.

Signatures of the Carrier Envelope Phase in Nonlinear Thomson Scattering

High-energy radiation can be generated by colliding a relativistic electron bunch with a high-intensity laser pulse—a process known as Thomson scattering. In the nonlinear regime the emitted radiation contains harmonics. For a laser pulse whose length is comparable to its wavelength, the carrier envelope phase changes the behavior of the motion of the electron and therefore the radiation spectrum. Here we show theoretically and numerically the dependency of the spectrum on the intensity of the laser and the carrier envelope phase. Additionally, we also discuss what experimental parameters are required to measure the effects for a beamed pulse.

RAMI analysis of the Collective Thomson Scattering system front-end – Part2 – reliability block diagram analysis

ITER is an experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor with the goal of achieving afusion energy gain factor of 10. Nuclear fusion presents an extreme environment for materials during operations while requiring continuous uninterrupted operation.The Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) is a graphic methodology for system reliability modelling which is constructed from the reliability-wise relations between different subsystems/components and their respective reliability and maintenance data. In this paper, we construct andanalyse the RBD for the Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) front-end both in terms of fulfilling its functions and its effects in the ITER tokamak operations. Our RDB analysis results were then used to propose mitigation actions which include design changes and operational procedures to deal with the identified failure modes.Our initial results indicate that the system's mean availability at the end of its lifecycle of 20 years is no greater than 82.55% which was due to low Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of a critical system component – theSplit Biased Waveguide (SBWG) – aswell as several thermally loaded components. After mitigation actions, which aimed at controlling the system's exposure to heat loads, the MTBFs increased and the resulting mean availability achieved values over 97%, in conformity with design specifications. Furthermore, considering the CTS failure modes with impact on ITER operations, the expected value for the mean availability is of 99.995%. Therefore, we concluded that these failure modes did not require mitigation actions.In this article, we cover the second half of the RAMI analysis of the CTS diagnostic, the RBD analysis.

Design for parallel computation of model-based signal processing in Thomson scattering diagnostic

The Thomson Scattering (TS) diagnostic system calculates electron temperature and density profiles of tokamak plasma. The diagnostic is enabled by measuring and analyzing pulse signals of scattered laser light in the tokamak plasma. In order to improve accuracy of the diagnostic, it is necessary to reduce noise level of the pulse signals. In KSTAR, a fast digitizer with 5 GS/s has been adopted for obtaining the pulse shape information, and a research of model-based signal processing for the pulse signals has been conducted. In this paper, we present a new approach for the model-based signal processing and its parallel computation architecture design to improve its computation speed. As our approach, we conduct a nonlinear least square method in frequency domain by taking Fourier Transformation (FT) of the TS pulse model containing a convolution operator. Then, we can obtain algebraic functions for the transformed model and its Jacobian, which can reduce amount of computation and can be computed in parallel respect to frequency component. We implement the parallel computation of the algorithm in Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) and evaluate its effectiveness in terms of computation performance, convergence analysis, and variation of the model parameters.