Construction of Five Tip Mach Probes for use in the Facility for Laboratory Reconnection Experiment.

The Facility for Laboratory Reconnection Experiments (FLARE) allows for deeper investigation into plasma events that involve the reconfiguration of magnetic field lines. These events are known as magnetic reconnection. Due to its size, FLARE can study more regimes of magnetic reconnection physics that were previously inaccessible via laboratory experiment. To study ion dynamics during magnetic reconnection, it is necessary to measure both ion temperature and velocity. While the ion temperature and toroidal flow is measured by an ion Doppler tomography system, currently there are no diagnostics to measure the ion inflow and outflow. To satisfy this research need, we have developed five-tip Mach probes, which combine a Mach probe with a triple Langmuir probe. The probe can measure the electron density, temperature, as well as one component of the ion velocity and electric field. . These measurements will allow for further understanding of ion acceleration and heating mechanisms in the reconnection exhaust. This work will describe the Mach probe circuit design and tip construction, as well as explain how the measurements listed above can be carried out with the five-tip Mach probe