Tomography of fast-ion velocity-space distributions from synthetic CTS and FIDA measurements

We compute tomographies of 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions from synthetic collective Thomson scattering (CTS) and fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) 1D measurements using a new reconstruction prescription. Contradicting conventional wisdom we demonstrate that one single 1D CTS or FIDA view suffices to compute accurate tomographies of arbitrary 2D functions under idealized conditions. Under simulated experimental conditions, single-view tomographies do not resemble the original fast-ion velocity distribution functions but nevertheless show their coarsest features. For CTS or FIDA systems with many simultaneous views on the same measurement volume, the resemblance improves with the number of available views, even if the resolution in each view is varied inversely proportional to the number of views, so that the total number of measurements in all views is the same. With a realistic four-view system, tomographies of a beam ion velocity distribution function at ASDEX Upgrade reproduce the general shape of the function and the location of the maxima at full and half injection energy of the beam ions. By applying our method to real many-view CTS or FIDA measurements, one could determine tomographies of 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions experimentally

Combination of fast-ion diagnostics in velocity-space tomographies:Paper

Fast-ion Dα (FIDA) and collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics provide indirect measurements of fastion velocity distribution functions in magnetically confined plasmas. Here we present the first prescription for velocity-space tomographic inversion of CTS and FIDA measurements that can use CTS and FIDA measurements together and that takes uncertainties in such measurements into account. Our prescription is general and could be applied to other diagnostics. We demonstrate tomographic reconstructions of an ASDEX Upgrade beam ion velocity distribution function. First, we compute synthetic measurements from two CTS views and two FIDA views using a TRANSP/NUBEAM simulation, and then we compute joint tomographic inversions in velocity-space from these. The overall shape of the 2D velocity distribution function and the location of the maxima at full and half beam injection energy are well reproduced in velocity-space tomographic inversions, if the noise level in the measurements is below 10%. Our results suggest that 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions can be directly inferred from fast-ion measurements and their uncertainties, even if the measurements are taken with different diagnostic methods

Fast-ion dynamics in the TEXTOR tokamak measured by collective Thomson scattering

Here we present the first measurements by collective Thomson scattering of the evolution of fast-ion populations in a magnetically confined fusion plasma. 150 kW and 110 Ghz radiation from a gyrotron were scattered in the TEXTOR tokamak plasma with energetic ions generated by neutral beam injection and ion cyclotron resonance heating. The temporal behavior of the spatially resolved fast-ion velocity distribution is inferred from the received scattered radiation. The fast-ion dynamics at sawteeth and the slowdown after switch off of auxiliary heating is resolved in time. The latter is shown to be in close agreement with modeling results

Performance measurements of the collective Thomson scattering receiver at ASDEX Upgrade

The fast-ion collective Thomson scattering (CTS) receiver at ASDEX Upgrade can detect spectral power densities of a few eV in the millimeter-wave range against the electron cyclotron emission (ECE) background on the order of 100 eV under presence of gyrotron stray radiation that is several orders of magnitude stronger than the signal to be detected. The receiver heterodynes the frequencies of scattered radiation (100–110 GHz) to intermediate frequencies (IF) (4.5–14.5 GHz). The IF signal is divided into 50 IF channels tightly spaced in frequency space which are terminated by square-law Schottky detector diodes. The performance of the entire receiver is determined by the main receiver components operating at mm-wave frequencies (notch-, bandpass- and lowpass filters, a voltage-controlled variable attenuator, and an isolator), a mixer, and the IF components (amplifiers, band-pass filters, and detector diodes). We discuss here the design of the entire receiver, focussing on its performance as a unit. The receiver has been disassembled, and the performance of its individual components has been characterized. Based on these individual component measurements we predict the spectral response of the receiver assembled as a unit. The measured spectral response of the assembled receiver is in reasonable agreement with this prediction