Visible spectroscopic diagnostics : application and development in fusion plasmas

Abstract: Diagnostic measurements play a vital role in experiments. Without them we would be in the dark with no way of knowing what was happening; of understanding the processes and behaviour occurring; or even of judging the success or failure of our experiments. The development of fusion plasma devices is no different. In this thesis we concentrate on visible spectroscopy based diagnostics: examining the techniques for measurement and analysis; the breadth of plasma parameters that can be extracted from the spectroscopic data; and how the application of these diagnostic techniques gives us a broader picture of the plasma and the events taking place within. Techniques are developed and applied to plasmas in three fusion experiments, EXTRAP T2R, ASDEX Upgrade and JET. The diagnostic techniques exploit different features of the measurements of the emitted photons to obtain various useful plasma parameters. Determination of the ion temperature and rotation velocity of oxygen impurity ions in the EXTRAP T2R plasma is achieved through measurement and analysis of, respectively, the Doppler broadening and the Doppler wavelength shift of visible wavelength atomic spectral lines. The evolution of the temperature and rotation is studied as a function of the discharge parameters, in particular looking at the effect of applying active feedback control schemes to the resistive wall modes and/or pulsed poloidal current drive. Measurements of multiple ionisation stages are used to estimate radial profiles of the toroidal rotation and the ion temperature and correlations between the ion rotations and the rotation velocities of tearing modes are also established. Radial profiles of the emissivity and density (or concentration) of the oxygen ions are obtained by means of measurements of the spectral line intensities on a small array of linesof- sight through the plasma. Changes to the profiles for different plasma schemes and the implications for particle transport are investigated. The derived emissivity profiles are used in the analysis for some of the other spectroscopic diagnostics. Spectral line intensity measurements (in this case of neutral ions) are also the basis for calculations of both the electron temperature and the particle fluxes at the plasma edge. The latter is an indicator of the degree and type of interaction between the plasma and the surrounding surfaces. Particle fluxes of the operating gas hydrogen and of chromium and molybdenum impurities are investigated in EXTRAP T2R for different operating scenarios, in particular changes in the metallic influx with the application of active feedback mode control are examined along with the correspondence between spectroscopic and collector probe results. In the ASDEX Upgrade divertor estimates of the particle flux of the deuterium operating gas are also made through analysis of spectral intensities. Molecular D2 band structure is explored in addition to the Balmer Dα spectral line intensity to acquire both atomic and molecular particle fluxes, investigate the contribution of the dissociating D2 to the Dα line and study the effect of changes in the divertor. Analysis of the D2 molecular band structure (the relative intensities of the rotational lines and vibrational bands) also enables calculation of the upper state rotational and ground state vibrational temperatures. The locations of emitting atomic ions in JET are estimated from Zeeman splitting analysis of the structure of their spectral lines. The measurement and analysis of visible wavelength light is demonstrated to be a sensitive diagnostic tool in the quest for increased knowledge about fusion plasmas and their operating scenarios.