Engineering the Alcator C-Mod MSE diagnostic: Solutions to reactor-relevant diagnostic challenges
Deploying precise optical diagnostics in harsh reactor environments poses significant engineering challenges including limited access, large forces, time-varying systematic errors, reflections, low signal-to-background levels and a need for in-situ calibration. Fielding a polarization-based Motional Stark Effect (MSE) diagnostic on Alcator C-Mod has proven to be difficult due to similar challenges, which has led to the development of solutions that enable polarization angle measurements with an accuracy of 0.2 degrees.
First mirror contamination studies for polarimetry motional Stark effect measurements for ITER
The motional Stark effect (MSE) diagnostic on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor will need to guide the light through a labyrinth of mirrors to provide neutron shielding. Knowledge of how the mirrors change the polarization is essential for accurate determination of the q profile. The optical properties of the plasma facing mirror are also expected to change with time due to deposition/erosion. For the purpose of examining this experimentally a detector system, identical to the JET MSE system, using twin photoelastic modulators was constructed. Measurements have been performed on freshly prepared mirrors, on mirrors after exposure to plasmas in Tore Supra, and labyrinth designs. The result shows a significant effect on the optical properties and demonstrate the need for in situ monitoring. The measured properties of the labyrinth closely follow the Mueller matrix formalism. With a correct choice of material the angle change introduced by the four mirrors furthest away from the plasma wil...
The REX-ISOLDE project
The Radioactive Beam Experiment REX-ISOLDE [1–3] is a pilot experiment at ISOLDE (CERN) testing the new concept of post acceleration of radioactive ion beams by using charge breeding of the ions in a high charge state ion source and the efficient acceleration of the highly charged ions in a short LINAC using modern ion accelerator structures. In order to prepare the ions for the experiments singly charged radioactive ions from the on-line mass separator ISOLDE will be cooled and bunched in a Penning trap, charge bred in an electron beam ion source (EBIS) and finally accelerated in the LINAC. The LINAC consists of a radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, which accelerates the ions up to 0.3 MeV/u, an interdigital H-type (IH) structure with a final energy between 1.1 and 1.2 MeV/u and three seven gap resonators, which allow the variation of the final energy. With an energy of the radioactive beams between 0.8 MeV/u and 2.2 MeV/u a wide range of experiments in the field of nuclear spectroscopy, astrophysics and solid state physics will be addressed by REX-ISOLDE.