A highly sensitive imaging Thomson scattering system was developed for low temperature (0.1-10 eV) plasma applications at the Pilot-PSI linear plasma generator. The essential parts of the diagnostic are a neodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser operating at the second harmonic (532 nm), a laser beam line with a unique stray light suppression system and a detection branch consisting of a Littrow spectrometer equipped with an efficient detector based on a "Generation III" image intensifier combined with an intensified charged coupled device camera. The system is capable of measuring electron density and temperature profiles of a plasma column of 30 mm in diameter with a spatial resolution of 0.6 mm and an observational error of 3% in the electron density (n(e)) and 6% in the electron temperature (T(e)) at n(e) = 4 x 10(19) m(-3). This is achievable at an accumulated laser input energy of 11 J (from 30 laser pulses at 10 Hz repetition frequency). The stray light contribution is below 9 x 10(17) m(-3) in electron density equivalents by the application of a unique stray light suppression system. The amount of laser energy that is required for a n(e) and T(e) measurement is 7 x 10(20)n(e) J, which means that single shot measurements are possible for n(e)>2 x 10(21) m(-3).
a b s t r a c tNew linear plasma devices are currently being constructed or planned in the Trilateral Euregio Cluster (TEC) to meet the challenges with respect to plasma surface interactions in DEMO and ITER: i) MAGNUM-PSI (FOM), a high particle and power flux device with super-conducting magnetic field coils which will reach ITER-like divertor conditions at high magnetic field, ii) the newly proposed linear plasma device JULE-PSI (FZJ), which will allow to expose toxic and neutron activated target samples to ITER-like fluences and ion energies including in vacuo analysis of neutron activated samples, and iii) the plasmatron VISION I, a compact plasma device which will be operated inside the tritium lab at SCK-CEN Mol, capable to investigate tritium plasmas and moderately activated wall materials. This contribution shows the capabilities of the new devices and their forerunner experiments (Pilot-PSI at FOM and PSI-2 Jülich at FZJ) in view of the main objectives of the new TEC program on plasma surface interactions.
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