Optical and electrical diagnostics for the investigation of edge turbulence in fusion plasmas

Abstract

A new, two dimensional and fast diagnostic system has been developed for studying the dynamic structure of plasma turbulence; it will be used in the edge of the reversed-field pinch devices TPE-RX and RFX. The system consists of a gas-puffing nozzle, 32 optical channels measuring Hα emitted from the puffed gas (to study the optical emissivity of turbulent patterns and to analyze structures in two dimensions), and an array of Langmuir probes (to compare the turbulent pattern with the optical method and to measure the local plasma parameters). The signals can be acquired at 10 Msamples/s with 2 MHz band width. The design of the system, calibrations, and tests of the electronic circuitry and the optical sensors are presented.