The Thomson Scattering System on the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX)

Technical Report · Thu Jul 31 04:00:00 EDT 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/953701· OSTI ID:953701

The Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX) is a spherical tokamak with R0 = 0.4m, a = 0.26m, BTF ~ 3.4kG, IP ~ 400kA, and pulse length ~ 0.25s. The goal of LTX is to investigate tokamak plasmas that are almost entirely surrounded by a lithium-coated plasma-facing shell conformal to the last closed magnetic flux surface. Based on previous experimental results and simulation, it is expected that the low-recycling liquid lithium surfaces will result in higher temperatures at the plasma edge, flatter overall temperature profiles, centrally-peaked density profiles, and an increased confinement time. To test these predictions, the electron temperature and density profiles in LTX will be measured by a multi-point Thomson scattering system (TVTS). Initially, TS measurements will be made at up to 12 simultaneous points between the plasma center and plasma edge. Later, high resolution edge measurements will be deployed to study the lithium edge physics in greater detail. Technical challenges to implementing the TS system included limited "line of sight" access to the plasma due to the plasma-facing shell and problems associated with the presence of liquid lithium.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• OSTI ID: 953701
• Report Number(s): PPPL-4339
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CONFINEMENT TIME
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
LITHIUM
MAGNETIC FLUX
PLASMA
RESOLUTION
SIMULATION
THOMSON SCATTERING
TOKAMAK DEVICES
Thomson Scattering
Tokamaks