A: Several upgrades have been applied to the high-repetition-rate Thomson scattering diagnostic on the MST experiment, having increased the rate and number of electron temperature measurements. The detector portion of the Thomson scattering system requires 1.5-2.0 J, 10-20 ns laser pulses at 1064 nm. A high-repetition-rate laser produces suitable pulses for short 3-4 pulse bursts with only 3 µs pulse spacing. Alternatively, the laser timing can be optimized to maximize the number of pulses in a single burst, producing up to 44 pulses at a rate of 100 kHz. The laser follows a master oscillator, power amplifier architecture. Upgrades to the laser include: a new acousto-optic modulator chopped CW laser based master oscillator, a sixth power amplifier, optimized Nd doping within Nd:glass amplifiers via optical modeling of the pump chamber, and a yet to be installed new cavity reflector. Additionally, a new long wavelength filter has been added to the Thomson scattering diagnostic's polychromator based detector, allowing possible detection of net electron drift.
K: Lasers; Nuclear instruments and methods for hot plasma diagnostics 1Corresponding author.