Plasma diagnostics in spherical tokamaks with silicon charged-particle detectors

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4955485· OSTI ID:22596568

Boeglin, W. U. ^[1]; Darrow, D. S.; Ellis, R.; Sibilia, M. J. ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199 (United States)
2. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)

Detection of charged fusion products, such as protons and tritons resulting from D(d, p) t reactions, can be used to determine the position and time dependent fusion reaction rate profile in spherical tokamak plasmas with neutral beam heating. We have developed a prototype instrument consisting of 6 ion-implanted-silicon surface barrier detectors combined with collimators in such a way that each detector can accept 3 MeV protons and 1 MeV tritons and thus provides a curved view across the plasma cross section. The combination of the results from all six detectors will provide information on the spatial distribution of the fusion reaction rate. The expected time resolution of about 1 ms makes it possible to study changes in the reaction rate due to slow variations in the neutral beam density profile, as well as rapid changes resulting from MHD instabilities. Details of the new instrument, its data acquisition system, simulation results, and electrical noise testing results are discussed in this paper. First experimental data are expected to be taken during the current experimental campaign at NSTX-U.

• OSTI ID: 22596568
• Journal Information: Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 87, Issue 11; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
DATA ACQUISITION
DIAGRAMS
HEAVY ION FUSION REACTIONS
ION IMPLANTATION
IONS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MEV RANGE 01-10
NSTX DEVICE
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PROTONS
REACTION KINETICS
SILICON
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
SURFACE BARRIER DETECTORS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTIONS
TIME DEPENDENCE
TIME RESOLUTION
TRITONS
TRITURUS