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Expansion of the LTX-beta Thomson scattering system, including high-field side measurements with off-normal viewing angles

POSTER

Abstract

There has been an expansion of the Thomson scattering(TS) electron temperature and density measurement system on LTX-beta. This expansion extended the range of major radii sampled to the high-field side of the device. The motivation for this increased sampling range is to further support flattened electron temperature profile measurements, to better locate the plasma centroid, and to provide TS data for smaller major radii plasmas. Machine hardware limitations and the requirement to make use of an existing laser beam led us to utilize an unusual scattering geometry where the polarization lies on the scattering plane. By staying away from a normal scattering angle, collected TS light is kept above our detection limits. Despite avoiding viewing parallel to the polarization, the total amount of collected light is still reduced by over 3 times. The detection system consists of 5 polychromators, each with four spectral channels. The spectral filters were originally optimized for normal viewing angles and 500 eV temperatures. Single shot measurements have been achieved but typically the signals are ensembled to reduce uncertainty, improve statistics, and better correlate to the core measurement system. Calibration, stray light mitigation, analysis methods, and initial results will all be discussed, as well as composite profiles from both the core and high-field side TS measurements.

Presenters

  • Drew B Elliott

    Oak Ridge National Lab

Authors

  • Drew B Elliott

    Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Dennis P Boyle

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  • Benoit P LeBlanc

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  • Anurag Maan

    PPPL, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  • William J Capecchi

    University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • Santanu Banerjee

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, PPPL

  • Robert Kaita

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  • Grant M Bodner

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, General Atomics

  • Dick Majeski

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, PPPL

  • Theodore M Biewer

    Oak Ridge National Lab, ORNL