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A new, high-repetition-rate pulse-burst laser system for the MST Thomson scattering diagnostic has operated with 2 J pulses at repetition rates up to 75 kHz within a burst. The 1064 nm laser currently employs a q-switched, diode pumped Nd:YVO4 master oscillator, four Nd:YAG amplifier stages, and a Nd:glass amplifier, with plans for an additional Nd:glass amplifier. The laser can maintain 1.5–2 J pulses in two operating modes: either at a uniform repetition rate of 5–10 kHz (sustained for 5–8 ms), or reach rates of up to 75 kHz in pulse-burst operation (for 10 bursts of 15 pulses each), limited by flashlamp explosion energy and wall loading. The full system, including an additional Nd:glass amplifier, is designed to produce bursts of 2 J pulses at a repetition rate of at least 250 kHz. Custom programmable square-pulse power supplies drive the amplifier flashlamps, providing fine control of pulse timing, duration, and repetition, and allow for pulse-burst operation. The new laser system integrates with the same collection optics and detectors as used by the previous MST Thomson laser: 21 spatial points across the MST minor radius, filter polychromators with 6 to 8 channels (10 eV–5 keV range), avalanche photodiode detectors, and 1 GSample/s/channel digitization. Use of the previous pulse-burst laser continues concurrently with new laser development. Additional notes on optimization of flashlamp simmering will also be covered, showing that an increase in simmer currents can improve pulse-to-pulse energy consistency on both the new and older lasers.

The uncertainty of electron density and temperature fluctuation measurements is determined by statistical uncertainty introduced by multiple noise sources. In order to quantify these uncertainties precisely, a simple but comprehensive model was made of the noise sources in the MST Thomson scattering system and of the resulting variance in the integrated scattered signals. The model agrees well with experimental and simulated results. The signal uncertainties are then used by our existing Bayesian analysis routine to find the most likely electron temperature and density, with confidence intervals. In the model, photonic noise from scattered light and plasma background light is multiplied by the noise enhancement factor (F) of the avalanche photodiode (APD). Electronic noise from the amplifier and digitizer is added. The amplifier response function shapes the signal and induces correlation in the noise. The data analysis routine fits a characteristic pulse to the digitized signals from the amplifier, giving the integrated scattered signals. A finite digitization rate loses information and can cause numerical integration error. We find a formula for the variance of the scattered signals in terms of the background and pulse amplitudes, and three calibration constants. The constants are measured easily under operating conditions, resulting in accurate estimation of the scattered signals' uncertainty. We measure F ≈ 3 for our APDs, in agreement with other measurements for similar APDs. This value is wavelength-independent, simplifying analysis. The correlated noise we observe is reproduced well using a Gaussian response function. Numerical integration error can be made negligible by using an interpolated characteristic pulse, allowing digitization rates as low as the detector bandwidth. The effect of background noise is also determined.

At anticipated high electron temperatures in ITER, the effects of electron thermal motion on phase measurements made by the toroidal interferometer/polarimeter (TIP) and poloidal polarimeter (PoPola) diagnostics will be significant and must be precisely treated or the measurement accuracy will fail to meet the specified requirements for ITER operation. We calculate electron thermal corrections to the interferometric phase and polarization state of an electromagnetic wave propagating along tangential and poloidal chords (Faraday and Cotton?Mouton polarimetry) and incorporate them into the Stokes vector equation for evolution of polarization. Although these corrections are small at electron temperatures Te???1?keV, they become sizable at Te???10?keV. The precision of the previous lowest order linear in the ??=?Te/mec2 model may be insufficient; we present a more precise model with ?2-order corrections to satisfy the high accuracy required for ITER TIP and PoPola diagnostics. Proper treatment of temperature effects will ensure more accurate interpretation of interferometric and polarimetric measurements in fusion devices like ITER and DEMO. The use of precise analytic expressions is especially important for burning plasmas where various interferometric techniques will be used for direct real time feedback control of device operations with time resolution ?1?ms to regulate the rate of the thermonuclear burn and monitor/control the safety factor profile.

Charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy, which is generally used to measure low-Z impurities in fusion devices, has been used for measuring Al+11 and Al+13 impurities in the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed field pinch. To obtain the impurity ion temperature, the experimental emission spectrum is fitted with a model which includes fine structure in the atomic transition. Densities of these two ionization states, calculated from charge-exchange emission brightness, are used in combination with a collisional radiative model to estimate the abundance of all other charge states of aluminum in the plasma and the contribution of aluminum to the effective ionic charge of the plasma.

By manipulating magnetic reconnection in Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) discharges, we have generated and confined for the first time a reversedfield pinch (RFP) plasma with an ion temperature >1keV and an electron temperature of 2keV. This is achieved at a toroidal plasma current of about 0.5MA, approaching MST’s present maximum. The manipulation begins with intensification of discrete magnetic reconnection events, causing the ion temperature to increase to several kiloelectronvolts. The reconnection is then quickly suppressed with inductive current profile control, leading to capture of a portion of the added ion heat with improved ion energy confinement. Electron energy confinement is simultaneously improved, leading to a rapid ohmically driven increase in the electron temperature. A steep electron temperature gradient emerges in the outer region of the plasma, with a local thermal diffusivity of about 2m 2 s −1 . The global energy confinement time reaches 12ms, the largest value yet achieved in the RFP and which is roughly comparable to the H-mode scaling prediction for a tokamak with the same plasma current, density, heating power, size and shape.

Fast proton impact with ammonia and methane leads to formation of H2+ and H3+ via bond rearrangement. We have examined this process in both the common and deuterated isotopes of these molecules. Unexpectedly, H3+ is more likely to be produced from ammonia than methane. Calculations of the ionic potential energy surface in reduced coordinates corresponding to a symmetric stretch of a H3+ triangle away from the nitrogen atom or C-H complex show this counterintuitive result is plausible.

Bond rearrangement, specifically the formation of H+2 and H+3 after ionization of methane and ammonia by fast (4 MeV) protons, is studied in both the common and deuterated isotopes of those molecules. Our coincidence time-of-flight measurements show that the relative probability of H+2 and H+3 production from ammonia is higher for the lighter isotope, contradicting the common intuition that the rearrangement occurs on the timescale of the dissociation. The isotopic effects in methane were much smaller. The relative probability of bond rearrangement leading to H+2 increases with the number of hydrogen atoms in the target. Unexpectedly, however, formation of H+3 is less likely from a methane target than from ammonia. We examined this result by calculating the ionic potential energy surface in reduced coordinates, corresponding to a symmetric stretch of a H+3 triangle away from the remaining C–H complex or nitrogen atom. From both the experiment and the model calculation, we find evidence to support the hypothesis that the bond rearrangement in these collisions proceeds as a two-step process in which a sudden ionization is followed by a slow molecular dissociation.

Studies of the simplest one-electron molecule, H2+, are the first step towards understanding the interaction of ultrashort intense laser pulses with molecules. We conduct coincidence 3D imaging measurements of H2+ beams following their exposure to intense ultrashort laser pulses. These measurements are compared with our time-dependent calculations as well as a simple model we recently proposed. Our findings include above threshold Coulomb explosion - a surprising structure in the energy spectrum near the ionization appearance intensity; above threshold dissociation (ATD) of the excited electronic states of H2+; and enhanced high-order ATD - involving the net absorption of at least 3 photons - brought about by closing the 2-photon channel.