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A new scintillator-based fast-ion loss detector (FILD) has been deployed ~45º below the midplane of the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. Port unavailability at this remote location requires an in-situ magnetically driven manipulator to move the diagnostic head horizontally through the scrape-off layer (SOL). The linear displacement is produced by an externally energized coil, whose magnetic dipole tries to align with the toroidal component of the tokamak magnetic field. The insertion is given by force balance between a retaining spring and the energized solenoid, whose current is regulated in real-time, opening the possibility of self-adaptive real-time control of the probe head location based on its temperature. The diagnostic head contains a scintillator screen, Faraday cup, thermocouple and collimator systems. The scintillator image is transferred to a vacuum window using a 3.5 meters quartz image guide. The light acquisition system is composed by a charge coupled device (CCD) camera, for high velocity-space resolution, and by an 8x4 channels avalanche photo diode (APD) camera, for high temporal resolution (up to 2MHz). First measurements of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) induced fast-ion losses and radially resolved fast-ion losses are presented.

A new reciprocating scintillator based fast-ion loss detector has been installed a few centimeters above the outer divertor of the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak and between two of its lower Edge Localized Modes (ELM) mitigation coils. The detector head containing the scintillator screen, Faraday cup, calibration lamp, and collimator systems are installed on a motorized reciprocating system that can adjust its position via remote control in between plasma discharges. Orbit simulations are used to optimize the detector geometry and velocity-space coverage. The scintillator image is transferred to the light acquisition systems outside of the vacuum via a lens relay (embedded in a 3D-printed titanium holder) and an in-vacuum image guide. A charge coupled device camera, for high velocity-space resolution, and an 8 × 8 channel avalanche photo diode camera, for high temporal resolution (up to 2 MHz), are used as light acquisition systems. Initial results showing velocity-space of neutral beam injection prompt losses and fast-ion losses induced by a (2, 1) neoclassical tearing mode are presented.

A magnetically driven fast-ion loss detector system for the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak has been designed and will be presented here. The device is feedback controlled to adapt the detector head position to the heat load and physics requirements. Dynamic simulations have been performed taking into account effects such as friction, coil self-induction, and eddy currents. A real time positioning control algorithm to maximize the detector operational window has been developed. This algorithm considers dynamical behavior and mechanical resistance as well as measured and predicted thermal loads. The mechanical design and real time predictive algorithm presented here may be used for other reciprocating systems.

This manuscript presents a new method of interpreting the ion temperature (Ti) measurement with a retarding field analyzer (RFA) that accounts for the intermittent/turbulent nature of the scrape off layer (SOL) plasmas in tokamaks. Fast measurements and statistical methods are desirable for an adequate description of random fluctuations caused by such intermittent events as edge localized modes (ELMs) and blobs. We use a RFA that can sweep its current–voltage (I–V) characteristics with up to 10 kHz. The RFA uses an electronics compensation stage to subtract the capacitive pickup due to the finite connecting cable capacitance, which greatly improves the signal-to-noise ratio. In the 10 kHz case, a single I–V characteristic is obtained in time, which is an order of magnitude faster than the ELM cycle. The fast sweeping frequency allows us to reconstruct the Ti probability density function (PDF), which we use as the Ti representation. The boundary conditions that we place on the I–V characteristics when calculating the Ti values impact the resulting Ti PDF. If the boundaries are insensitive to the plasma fluctuations, then the most probable Ti value of the PDF (20 eV–25 eV) is similar to the Ti value obtained via the classical conditional averaging method (20 eV–27 eV). However, if the boundary conditions follow the fluctuations, then the PDF-based method gives a substantially higher most probable Ti value (35 eV–60 eV). Overall, we show that a fast sweeping RFA diagnostic should be used in intermittent SOL plasmas to reconstruct the PDF for accurate Ti measurements.