A highresolution Lidar–Thomson scattering diagnostic for JET

H. Fajemirokun, C. Gowers, P. Nielsen, H. Salzmann, and K. Hirsch

Citation: Review of Scientific Instruments 61, 2843 (1990); doi: 10.1063/1.1141801

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1141801
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/61/10?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing

Articles you may be interested in

High-resolution ruby laser Thomson scattering diagnostic for the W7-AS stellarator
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 1679 (2003); 10.1063/1.1532766

Optical fiber coupled multitelescope lidar system: Application for a Rayleigh lidar
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 67, 3270 (1996); 10.1063/1.1147407

Electronics for microchannel photomultipliers in the LIDAR Thomson scattering diagnostic on JET
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 60, 3265 (1989); 10.1063/1.1140563

Rapidtuning device for CO2 heterodyne detection lidar

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 60, 1258 (1989); 10.1063/1.1140300

The LIDAR Thomson scattering diagnostic on JET (invited)

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 59, 1451 (1988); 10.1063/1.1139686

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
82.166.164.234 On: Sun, 04 May 2014 17:41:13
 A high..resolution lidar....Thomson scattering diagnostic for JET
H. Fajemirokun,a) C. Gowers, P. Nielsen, H. Salzmann,b) and K Hirschc )
JET Joint Undertaking, Abingdon. Oxon OX14 3EA, United Kingdom
(Presented on 7 May 1990)
A LIDAR-Thomson scattering system with better than 5 cm spatial resolution to resolve
edge electron temperature and density gradients in H-mode operation in JET is needed.
A dynamic range in measurable electron temperature of 0.1-1.5 keY and a minimum
detectable electron density of 10 19/m 3 are required. To achieve these levels of performance, it
is planned to use a modified section of the existing JET LIDAR-Thomson scattering
system. A new detection system, consisting of a streak camera and an intensifier unit, wiI! be
used. Spectral dispersion is to be performed by a three-channel edgc filter spectrometer.
Recording and digitization of the scattered signal will be performed by a CCD camera read
out by a personal computer. The system is described and results of experiments to
determine the minimum visible light levels using a commercial streak camera, intensifier unit,
and CCD camera and a pulsed laser diode light source are briefly presented. In addition,
simulations of expected signal-to-noise ratio performance are discussed.

I. INTRODUCTION on the LIDAR-Thomson scattering diagnostic may be re-

duced to 180 ps. At this pulse length, the laser energy per
The LIDAR-Thomson scattering diagnostic! has been
operating successfully at JET since July 1987. Originally, pulse is - 2 J.
The system presented in this paper shares the existing
the best achievable spatial resolution was around 12 cm.
LIDAR-Thomson scattering system laser and input
This figure is determined by the pulse width of the laser,
optics, 2 but only uses one of the six beams of collected light
rf-, and the response time of the detection system, rn, ac-
from the output collecting mirror array (the remainder of
cording to the relation (assuming Gaussian laser pulse and
the array to be used as part of an upgraded, high repetition
detector response)
rate conventional LIDAR-Thomson scattering system}).
(]"L =c (2
1"L + 'Tn
2 ) li2/2 ' (1) A three-channel filter spectrometer divides the light into
three frequCi1cy bands before it is focused down into three
where c is the speed of light. Lately, this figure has been spots on the streak camera photocathode by a fast fll lens.
improved to - 8 cm, by deconvoluting the received signal A CeD camera records the output of the streak camera
from the total response function of the system (the Green's image intensifier and the data are stored in digitized form
function of the system).2 Using the existing system, it on a personal computer. It will be shown that spatial res-
seems unlikely that any further improvements in spatial olution of less than 5 cm is achievable using such a setup.
resolution will be possible across the whole profile. How- Even better resolution could possibly be obtained by using
ever, it would be of interest to resolve locally distances a deconvolution technique on the observed data, similar to
significantly smaller than this figure at the edge of the that used on the present LIDAR-Thomson scattering
plasma, because in H-mode operation the scale lengths of system 2 and this is also being investigated.
the electron density gradient, the electron temperature gra-
dient, and the electron pressure gradient are less than 8 cm.
Understanding the nature of these gradients would yield II. MODUS OPERANDI
important information on ballooning and other modes in
A basic description of the LIDAR-Thomson scatter-
the plasma. To attain better spatial resolution with a U-
ing concept is given in Re[ 1. Collected Thomson scattered
DAR system requires a detection system with a faster rc-
light passes through a three-channel spectrometer and
sponse time than the microchannelplate photomultipliers
thence via an fll focusing lens to the streak camera pho-
and transient digitizers presently used, which have a com-
tocathode. The streak image will consist of three parallel
bined response time of 700 MHz. In addition, any short-
lines, side by sid.e, which vary in intensity along their
ening of the laser pulse would clearly be helpful.
length. By fitting a spectrum to the three-channel intensity
Large improvements in the detector response time may
distribution at each temporal resolution element on the
be realized by switching to a streak camera detection sys-
streak camera record the electron temperature and density
tem. Streak cameras with a streak speed of up to 30 ps/mm
profile for a a.S-m-Iong radial section of plasma can be
are available on the market. It has been verified experimen-
deduced. For a given focused spot size X on the photocath-
tally that the pulse length of the ruby laser currently in use
ode and a given sweep speed S, the temporal resolution
(i.e., response time of the detector) of the streak camera is
allmperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. London. UK.
just XS. For example, a sweep speed of 75 ps per mm (well
;'lMax-Plank·lnstitut fill' Plasmaphysik, 8046 Garching, FRGo
ClInstitut fUr Plasmaforschung, Universitat Stuttgart, 7-Stuttgart 80, within the capability of available cameras) and a spot di-
FRG. ameter of 2 mm yields a temporal resolution of just 150 ps.

2843 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 61 (10). October 1990 0034-6748/90/102843-03$02000 (0) 1990 American Institute of Physics 2843

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
82.166.164.234 On: Sun, 04 May 2014 17:41:13
 Inserting this into the formula for the spatial resolution the incoming light into a small number of spectral bands
and taking a laser pulse time of 180 ps yields a minimum and concentrates this light at points on the photocathode.
resolvable length inside the plasma of 3.5 cm. The overall transmission of such a system is also typically
higher by a factor 1.5. The smallest number of channels for
III. COLLECTION OPTICS which a temperature measurement can be made is 2. How-
ever, using only two channels precludes performing the
The backscattered light from the plasma first passes kind of statistical analysis on the data as described in Ref.
through a quartz output window of diameter 17 em whose 4. Therefore, a three-channel filter spectrometer is favored.
center is displaced 19 cm vertically from the mid plane of Having specified a three-channel system, it is necessary to
the torus. The light is then focused by a single spherical determine the optimum frequency ranges of the channels
mirror of diameter 35 cm and focal length 2 m, such that for the required dynamic range in electron temperature,
a point at a major radius of 3:9 m is imaged close to a small Le., 0.01-1.5 keY. Using a simulation code good frequency
Newtonian mirror. The spherical mirror has an effective bands for the system were found to be 500-580 nm, 580-
solid angle of collection of 1.2 X 10 - 3 Sf. In turn, the New- 675 nm, and 675-690 nm.
tonian mirror is imaged onto a field lens in the roof of the Before the light reaches the streak camera, stray laser
torus hall by a second spherical mirror of diameter 30 cm light and plasma light must be extracted from the collected
and focal length 2.00 m. After passing through a two- light. This is most efficiently done by using a sharp-edged
mirror labyrinth, the plasma is finally imaged by an ach- bandpass filter in each channel, positioned after the edge
romatic doublet, which is placed in the image plane of the channel filters, to reject unwanted light.
second spherical mirror. It is at this point that the scat- Finally, the optical path followed by light in each three
tered light for the high-resolution LIDAR system is sepa- channels must follow the same optical path to within 1 cm
rated from that of the existing LIDAR system. A I: 1 im- (less than one resolution element) to best use the whole
age of the plasma is formed about 1 m from the achromat, available streak length and avoid an extra consideration in
after passing through an aspheric corrector plate and a thin the time calibration of the system. With these factors in
(focal length 1 m) compensating lens. The compensating mind, the optical system shown in Fig. 1 was designed. A
lens is necessary because the focal length of the first spher- simulation program was written to calculate the expected
ical mirror is optimized for the original LIDAR system, signal in each channel, in terms of the number of photo-
i.e., to image the center of the plasma (at major radius 3.05 electrons as a function of time, for typical JET H modes.
m), not the edge. An example is shown in Fig. 2.
After the light passes through the spectrometer the
IV. SPECTROMETER DESIGN three plasma images must be demagnified into as small a
A l'mmber of constraints determine the nature of the spot as possible on the streak camera photocathode. For a
spectrometer to be used in the system. Most important, the 2-mm- diam spot on the photocathode anfll final focusing
number of photons collected by the collection optics from lens is required, if the scattering volume diameter in the
a single spatially resolved element in the plasma must be plasma (i.e., the laser beam diameter) is 3 cm.
considered. The length of a spatially resolved element is
about 3.5 cm as calculated above. The number of photons, v. SPECIFICATION OF THE STREAK CAMERA
n ps , scattered from this plasma element and delivered by The first consideration in the streak camera specifica-
the collection optics to the streak camera photocathode, IS tion is to choose an appropriate streak rate. Taking into
given by account Eq. (1), it is clear that little is to be gained in
(2)
where ne is the electron density in the plasma, np; is the Schematic of the High resolution LIDAR· Thomson
number of incident photons, a p is the classical electron Scattering Diagnostic
cross section, A is the cross-sectional area of the incident
laser beam, V is the scattering volume, T is the total optical
transmission, and n is the solid angle subtended by the

U.
Prism with surface
coated as bandpass filter
collecting mirror (note VIA =8L, the resolution clement \ i

length). For collection optics as described above with a ;intensifi:ersonal ~~~~~~:::"~~-12"

I f=D.5m lenses

total transmission factor of 20%, a laser energy of 2 J at computer ~ ..>,,-;:r

I _ Filter", ---•._ ~~, lens
694 nm and an electron denSIty •
of 10 1<)'m - ,-, nps = 48 00 . t7~?f:-
f=1m~e~D-_/ - . ~ ~~jj~~r~~filter
For an S25 photocathode, the quantum efficiency ai 694 ,,~
aspheric
" //
r Prism with
surface f=O.6m lens
,I'
'.
nm is about 3%. Therefore, the number of photoelectrons colour I coated as edge f,lter
produced per resolution element would typically be 140, achromatic gl~ss p. . bandpass
. filter filter
not a very large number, but certainly detectable. The pau-
Iens I-530nm

city of photoelectrons means that a diffraction grating Thomsen-scattered

light from plasma
spectrometer is unfeasible, as this would spread the pho-
tons over a whole spectral range. It is more promising to FIG. I. Schematic of the high-resolution LIDAR-Thomson scattering
use an edge or a bandpass filter spectrometer, which splits diagnostic.

2844 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 61, No. 10, October 1990 High temperature plasma diagnostics 2844

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
82.166.164.234 On: Sun, 04 May 2014 17:41:13
 ---I
Density against time (Fuji profile· Region a eCD camera. A Hadland 675 Imacon streak camera, a
of intrest to edge diagnostic shown)
Hadland intensifier, and a Tectronics DeS CeD recording
3'5rho~SOnSCa!t~rin~~-f~-':-~

)l}J~'~~\hfl\~
system were used. The streak camera slit was illuminated
by a pulsed Sharp laser diode (wavelength 788 nm), whose
3,0', t., beam first passed through a diffuser. The laser energy pass-
20 ~:~111¥'~ I 1 111ft ing through the slit when the laser produced 50 ns square
pulses on a 111 duty cycle was measured at 0.2 mW. The
peak power during the 50 ns pulse was therefore 0,4 m W.
The camera was then streaked when iHuminated by a sin-
~ 1,5ii edge diagnostics \ gle 50 ns square pulse. By adjusting the amount of light
'" attenuation in front of the slit the number of photons fall-
g ' ~-- - -- - - - - --- ._---- - - ,
o j,O, ing on the streak camera photocathode could be varied.
o Fitted density tc signal data il The slit width was 75 !.tm, the magnification in the streak
0,5 I tube was X 2, and the quantum efficiency of the S20 pho-
tocathode at 788 nm is 0.1 %. It was found that at the 103
j level of total intensification (the maximum attainable with
00 -2'14-6-8 -lo'12-14-1s the hardware), the naked eye could observe the intensified
L_-
r- -1
Edge diagnostic Time (ns) streak output when the laser light was attenuated by X 90,
(First 3,3ns)
at a streak speed of 5 ns/mm. This corresponds to an
observable intensity of around 10 photoelectrons per reso-
FIG, 2, Simulation of all electron density measuremt:nL lution element (i.e., per magnified slit width), a signal-to-
noise ratio of ~ 3; however, the CCD camera could only
observe photoelectron intensities 40 times higher than this
terms of spatial resolution by having a streak camera re-
sponse time of much less the laser pulse time (180 ps), A figure. This implies that the required total intensification
streak camera response of 150 ps is reasonable, and for a 2 for the streak camera and intensifier must be greater than
mm light spot on the photocathode (achievable by using 105 in order to observe the expected low light levels with a
CCD camera. It should be emphasized, however, that im-
fli optics), this equates to a streak rate of 75 ps/mm. In
provements could be made by improving the coupling be-
order to observe 0.5 m of plasma at this streak rate, a 45
mm streak length is necessary (assuming 1: 1 magnification tween the CCD camera and the intensifier, or by using a
lower noise eCD camera.
in the streak camera tube).
Both before and after the arrival at the streak camera VII. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
of scattered light from the edge plasma region, a large
pulse of stray laser light arrives (around 106 times larger It is feasible to attempt to resolve electron temperature
than the scattered light signal), the first from the torus and density gradients at the plasma edge in H-mode oper-
input window, the second from the torus inner wall. This ation by LIDAR-Thomson scattering using a streak cam-
dictates that the on/off gating ratio of the streak camera era detector and filter spectrometer. Another possible ap-
should be > 106 , The laser light from the observed 0.5 m plication of this high resolution technique would be to
region arrives over a period of 3.3 ns and the total laser attempt to make measurements on MHD island fonnation
flight time to the inner wall and back is around 14 n8. A and motion in the plasma.
gating rise/fall time for the streak camera of less than IOns
1 n,
Salzmann. J, Bundgaard, A. Gadd, C. Gowers, K, B. Hansen, K
is therefore required, with a post gate suppression period of Hirsch, p, Nielsen, K. Reed, Co Schrodter, and K, Weisberg, Rev, Sci,
typically 100 ns. lustrum. 59,1451 (1988),
2 H. Salzmann, J, Bundgaard. A, Gadd, Co Gowers, V, Gusev, K, B.
Hansen, K. Hirsch, p, Nielsen, K. Reed, C. Schrodtcr, and K, Weis-
VI. INTENSIFIER AND ceD: SOME EXPERIMENTS berg" JET Report, JET·R(89)07.
WITH EXISTING HARDWARE lc. Gowers. A. Gadd, K. Hirsch, p, Nielsen, and H. Salzmann, JET
Report, JET·P(90)09,
A simulation experiment was set up to determine in- 4 H. Fajemirokun, Co Gowers, K, Hirsch, p, Nielsen, and H, Salzmann,
tensification levels needed to record the streak image using Rev, Sci, lustrum, (to be published),

2645 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 61, No, 10, October 1990 High temperature plasma diagnostics 2845

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
82.166.164.234 On: Sun, 04 May 2014 17:41:13