Long-time measurements of line-integrated plasma electron density using a two-color homodyne optical fiber interferometer.

A two-color homodyne Mach-Zehnder (M-Z) optical fiber interferometer with wavelengths of 1.55 and 1.31 µm was developed for long-time measurement of line-integrated plasma electron density. A novel phase difference demodulation algorithm based on a single 3 × 3 optical coupler was implemented in a two-color optical fiber interferometer scheme for the first time. Our laboratory tests showed that this new optical fiber interferometer could determine the phase shift due to the low-frequency ambient vibration and could maintain high phase resolution measurement. The resolution of the new interferometer was less than 0.04 rad in 1000 s, corresponding to a line-averaged electron density of less than 1.0 × 1019 m-2. Actual plasma discharge experiments performed on KTX-CTI, which is a new compact torus injector (CTI) constructed at the Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX), showed that this interferometer has excellent several-second stability.

Optical fiber interferometer application for high electron density measurements on compact torus plasmas.

An optical fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer at a wavelength of 1.55 µm has been developed for measurements of high electron density on compact torus (CT) plasmas with a high time resolution of 0.1 µs and high phase resolution of 6.4 × 10-4 rad. To improve density measurement accuracy, the phase noise of the interferometer has been investigated in detail and optimized. In the bench test, the interferometer was calibrated using a piezoelectric ceramic actuator with known stroke. Initial results on CT plasma show that the optical fiber interferometer provides reliable density measurements at two spatial locations and the bulk velocity of plasma can be determined by the method of time of flight.

A parametric method for correcting polluted plasma current signal and its application on Keda Torus eXperiment.

We have developed a parametric method for eliminating the background component of the plasma current, which is measured by a Rogowski coil and polluted by the toroidal magnetic field in the vacuum vessel of the Keda Torus eXperiment (KTX) reversed field pinch (RFP) device. The method considers the toroidal magnetic field windings, the KTX vacuum chamber, and the Rogowski coil as a linear time-invariant system; in this case, a constant frequency response function characterizes the system. Using this response function, the current component caused by pollution from the toroidal magnetic field can be predicted exactly for an arbitrary input current to the toroidal magnetic field windings. Compared with the traditional proportional compensation method, the proposed method has great flexibility and universality and it is potentially applicable to cases in which the toroidal field current signal changes over time with plasma feedback signals. Furthermore, the method can be applied to other similarly affected signals, such as magnetic field signals. As an example, we have corrected the poloidal and toroidal magnetic field signals better to reveal the true physical processes for the RFP state.

An automatic beam alignment system based on relative reference points for Thomson scattering diagnosis system.

An automatic beam alignment system based on relative reference points is developed for the Thomson scattering system on Keda Torus eXperiment. Two critical apertures around the vacuum vessel are designed to shield stray light, and a probe beam is required to go through the centers of these two apertures, which are the reference points for alignment. Since these two apertures are coated with light absorbing materials, three fibers with glowing tips are employed to indicate the centers of two apertures. CMOS cameras are used to monitor beam deviations. The misalignment correction is achieved by driving piezomotor mirror mounts via a program developed with LabVIEW, which includes the image acquisition and processing module and the deviation correction module. As a result, this system can correct beam misalignment in less than 20 s and suppress the long-term drift of laser pointing in ±10 µrad. Also, this system has the capability to correct up to about 2.3 mm of camera shift with our experiment condition.

In situ relative self-dependent calibration of electron cyclotron emission imaging via shape matching.

Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging (ECEI) is a diagnostic system which measures 2-D electron temperature profiles with high spatial-temporal resolution. Usually only the normalized electron temperature fluctuations are utilized to investigate the magnetohydrodynamics modes due to the difficulties of ECEI calibration. In this paper, we developed a self-dependent calibration method for 24 × 16 channel high-resolution ECEI on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. The technique of shape matching is applied to solve for the matrix of the calibration coefficients. The calibrated area is further expanded to an occupation ratio of 88% observation area by utilizing the features of sawtooth crash. The result is self-consistent and consistent with calibrated 1D ECE measurement.

Diagnostic capacity of electron cyclotron emission imaging system with continuous large observation area on EAST tokamak.

Electron cyclotron emission imaging on EAST provides direct measurements of the 2-D electron temperature dynamics in a continuous large observation area with high temporal and spatial resolution. Besides the normal MHD investigation, a system with a view field large enough to cover the core plasma region has been applied to extract more plasma information, such as the plasma center location, the deposition location of auxiliary heating, and the core toroidal rotation speed. These results solely based on electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) data are consistent with the results of the equilibrium fitting (EFIT), numerical code, and other diagnostics, which indicate the powerful diagnostic capacity of this ECEI system.

Upgrade of the Mirnov probe arrays on the J-TEXT tokamak.

The magnetic diagnostic of Mirnov probe arrays has been upgraded on the J-TEXT tokamak to measure the magnetohydrodynamic instabilities with higher spatial resolution and better amplitude-frequency characteristics. The upgraded Mirnov probe array contains one poloidal array with 48 probe modules and two toroidal arrays with 25 probe modules. Each probe module contains two probes which measure both the poloidal and the radial magnetic fields (Bp and Br). To ensure that the Mirnov probe possess better amplitude-frequency characteristics, a novel kind of Mirnov probe made of low temperature co-fired ceramics is utilized. The parameters and frequency response of the probe are measured and can meet the experiment requirement. The new Mirnov arrays have been normally applied for a round of experiments, including the observation of tearing modes and their coupling as well as high frequency magnetic perturbation due to the Alfvén eigenmode. In order to extract useful information from raw signals, visualization processing methods based on singular value decomposition and cross-power spectrum are applied to decompose the coupled modes and to determine the mode number.

A new application of retarding field analyzer for the electron and ion temperature measurement on the J-TEXT tokamak.

A new application of retarding field analyzer for the electron and ion temperature measurement (named eiRFA) has been realized on the J-TEXT tokamak. A novel bias arrangement is adopted for the eiRFA to implement the simultaneous measurement of the electron and ion temperatures in the scrape-off layer, as well as the floating potential, plasma space potential, and sheath potential drop coefficient. It shows that the temperatures measured by eiRFA are reasonable and the plasma space potential obtained by two means is in good self-consistent. Moreover, the calculation of electron temperature can be modified using the eiRFA.

The rectangular array of magnetic probes on J-TEXT tokamak.

The rectangular array of magnetic probes system was newly designed and installed in the torus on J-TEXT tokamak to measure the local magnetic fields outside the last closed flux surface at a single toroidal angle. In the implementation, the experimental results agree well with the theoretical results based on the Spool model and three-dimensional numerical finite element model when the vertical field was applied. Furthermore, the measurements were successfully used as the input of EFIT code to conduct the plasma equilibrium reconstruction. The calculated Faraday rotation angle using the EFIT output is in agreement with the measured one from the three-wave polarimeter-interferometer system.

The fast reciprocating magnetic probe system on the J-TEXT tokamak.

The fast reciprocating magnetic probe (FRMP) system is newly developed on the Joint Texas Experimental Tokamak (J-TEXT) to measure the local magnetic fluctuations at the plasma edge. The magnetic probe array in the FRMP consists of four 2-dimensional magnetic probes arranged at different radial locations to detect local poloidal and radial magnetic fields. These probes are protected by a graphite and boron nitride casing to improve the frequency response of each probe; they are mounted on the head of a movable rod, which is oriented along radial direction at the top of the torus. In the experiments, multiple core diagnostics show that the insertion of the FRMP has little impact on the equilibrium of the plasma. Local magnetic fluctuations inside the last closed flux surface are successfully measured by the FRMP.

Design of Thomson scattering diagnostic system on J-TEXT.

An infrared multi-channel Thomson scattering diagnostic system is designed from the viewpoint of development of the proposed system on the Joint Texas Experimental Tokamak (J-TEXT). A 3 J/50 Hz Nd:YAG laser, which is injected vertically into plasma in the direction from top to bottom, serves as the power source of the system. The scattering light is then collected horizontally and is transmitted to an interference-filter avalanche photodiode based polychromater for spectrum analysis. The system covers the half plasma cross section, providing 14 spatial points with 2 cm resolution. The proposed system can thus satisfy the requirements of the J-TEXT at present and in the near future. A detailed description of the system design is presented in this paper.

Note: A calibration method to determine the lumped-circuit parameters of a magnetic probe.

This paper describes a novel method to determine the lumped-circuit parameters of a magnetic inductive probe for calibration by using Helmholtz coils with high frequency power supply (frequency range: 10 kHz-400 kHz). The whole calibration circuit system can be separated into two parts: "generator" circuit and "receiver" circuit. By implementing the Fourier transform, two analytical lumped-circuit models, with respect to these separated circuits, are constructed to obtain the transfer function between each other. Herein, the precise lumped-circuit parameters (including the resistance, inductance, and capacitance) of the magnetic probe can be determined by fitting the experimental data to the transfer function. Regarding the fitting results, the finite impedance of magnetic probe can be used to analyze the transmission of a high-frequency signal between magnetic probes, cables, and acquisition system.

Design of the high-resolution soft X-ray imaging system on the Joint Texas Experimental Tokamak.

A new soft X-ray diagnostic system has been designed on the Joint Texas Experimental Tokamak (J-TEXT) aiming to observe and survey the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activities. The system consists of five cameras located at the same toroidal position. Each camera has 16 photodiode elements. Three imaging cameras view the internal plasma region (r/a < 0.7) with a spatial resolution about 2 cm. By tomographic method, heat transport outside from the 1/1 mode X-point during the sawtooth collapse is found. The other two cameras with a higher spatial resolution 1 cm are designed for monitoring local MHD activities respectively in plasma core and boundary.

Breakdown assisted by a novel electron drift injection in the J-TEXT tokamak.

A novel electron drift injection (EDI) system aiming to improve breakdown behavior has been designed and constructed on the Joint Texas EXperiment Tokamak Tokamak. Electrons emitted by the system undergo the E×B drift, ∇B drift and curvature drift in sequence in order to traverse the confining magnetic field. A local electrostatic well, generated by a concave-shaped plate biased more negative than the cathode, is introduced to interrupt the emitted electrons moving along the magnetic field line (in the parallel direction) in an attempt to bring an enhancement of the injection efficiency and depth. A series of experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of this method, and a penetration distance deeper than 9.5 cm is achieved. Notable breakdown improvements, including the reduction of breakdown delay and average loop voltage, are observed for discharges assisted by EDI. The lower limit of successfully ionized pressure is expanded.

Angular-divergence calculation for Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak neutral beam injection ion source based on spectroscopic measurements.

Calorimetric method has been primarily applied for several experimental campaigns to determine the angular divergence of high-current ion source for the neutral beam injection system on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). A Doppler shift spectroscopy has been developed to provide the secondary measurement of the angular divergence to improve the divergence measurement accuracy and for real-time and non-perturbing measurement. The modified calculation model based on the W7AS neutral beam injectors is adopted to accommodate the slot-type accelerating grids used in the EAST's ion source. Preliminary spectroscopic experimental results are presented comparable to the calorimetrically determined value of theoretical calculation.