Plasma Turbulence Imaging Using High-Power Laser Thomson Scattering
Authors: S.J. Zweben, J. Caird, W. Davis, D.W. Johnson, and B.P. LeBlanc
Date of PPPL Report: June 2000
Submitted to: Review of Scientific Instruments
The 2-D structure of plasma density turbulence in a magnetically confined plasma can potentially be measured using a Thomson scattering system made from components of the Nova laser of LLNL. For a plasma such as NSTX at PPPL, the laser would form an approximately equal to10 cm wide plane sheet beam passing vertically through the chamber across the magnetic field. The scattered light would be imaged by a CCD camera viewing along the direction of the magnetic field. The laser energy required to make 2-D images of density turbulence is in the range 1-3 kJ, which can potentially be obtained from a set of frequency-doubled Nd:Glass amplifiers with diameters in the range of 208-315 mm. A laser pulse width of less than or equal to100 nsec would be short enough to capture the highest spatial frequency components of the expected density fluctuations.