22.67 Principles of Plasma Diagnostics

Final Exam, Fall 2004


9:00-12:00 Room 24-121 13 Dec 2004

Open Book. Cite reference for formulas used without proof.




1. Consider diagnosis of a plasma by fast charge-exchange neutrals, as shown schematically here.
The plasma is a uniform cylinder of radius a. It has only hydrogen ions, electron density ne, temperatures Te and Ti, and a density of neutral hydrogen atoms nh that can be taken as having zero energy. The detection system has a collimator consisting of two apertures, each 5mm by 5mm a distance 0.5m apart. The neutrals are then energy-analysed into a spectrum that gives the rate of arrival of neutrals accepted by the collimator per unit time per unit energy, F(E), where E is the energy. For the cases where evaluation is required, consider a plasma: a=0.2m, ne=1019m−3, Te=Ti=2keV, nh=1015m−3.
(a)
Write down an expression for the probability that a fast neutral created in the plasma will reach the edge without experiencing an ionizing collision, pointing out any approximations involved.
(b)
Evaluate your expression for a 10 keV energy neutral created at the plasma center.
(c)
Show how to obtain a general expression for F(E).
(d)
Suppose Ti is deduced ignoring attenuation, as the inverse of the slope of ln|Fc E| in the vicinity of 10keV, estimate quantitatively the error that arises from the actual attenuation of neutrals.
(e)
Calculate the rate of detection of neutrals in an energy range of 0.5 keV at 10keV.
(f)
If the spectrum is collected for a time of 1 ms, estimate the fractional statistical fluctuation in the observed detection rate.
(g)
How are these quantities (d), (e) and (f) different if the plasma density is a factor of ten higher: 1020m−3?


2. Reflectometry is performed on a linear density profile that may be taken as given by
ne = n0
1 − rr0

l

for r < r0+l and ne=0 for r > r0+l.


The reflectometer launches an ordinary wave at r=a, where a > r0+l, and it propagates in one dimension along the decreasing radius r until it reaches the cutoff density, at a radius rc say, and is then reflected, returning to be received again at r=a. The parameter l describes the scale-length of the density variation. The wave frequency is ω and the cut-off density is nc. We are interested in the way changes in density profile change the reflectometer observations.
(a)
Obtain an expression for the effective path-length (L) observed by the reflectometer, defined as the phase-shift of the reflected wave (ϕ) divided by ω/c.
(b)
If the density profile parameter l changes, with no and r0 constant, the path-length, L, will either increase or decrease. Deduce the range of values of nc/no over which the change of L has the same sign as the change in the distance (arc) between the launch point and the critical radius.


3. ITER has approximate parameters R=6.2 a=2m, ne ≈ 1020m−3, Te=Ti ≈ 10keV. Write a summary of the specific opportunities or challenges that these parameters (or other aspects of ITER operation) present for each of four proposed diagnostics:
(a)
Density interferometry;
(b)
Incoherent thomson scattering;
(c)
Neutral beam based diagnostics (such as charge exchange spectroscopy);
(d)
Electron cyclotron emission.
Explain as quantitatively as possible in each case, the reasons why diagnostic challenges are different (or the same) for the ITER case, compared with smaller, present-day tokamaks.



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On 7 Oct 2014, 11:28.