| Field Reversed Configuration plasmas have great promise as an alternative confinement concept as progress is made toward a feasible magnetic confinement fusion energy source. As an alternative confinement concept, FRC plasmas are generally under-diagnosed. The advanced diagnostics presented in this dissertation are efficient and effective methods of gathering valuable information about the properties of these FRC plasmas, particularly plasma rotation and stability, and aid in our understanding of the basic physics governing them. An efficient Fourier expansion method of computational tomography will be presented, tested, and applied to FRC plasmas.;In the application of this tomographic method to experimental data, we will be able to corroborate measurements made with other diagnostics and allow information to be pulled out of data that would otherwise not be possible without making gross assumptions. Verification of measurements of flux amplification is made for the first time by coupling data from an internal magnetic probe and the tomography system. Correlation of ion rotation with the rotation frequency of a rotational instability is made possible with tomography and tomographic reconstruction of these rotational instabilities aid in the understanding of the stability dependence on particular antenna geometries.;Absolute calibration of diodes filtered to collect Dalpha line emission is presented. With this calibration and using other experimental data, we are able to make a measurement of neutral density and infer a fuelling rate. These measurements are useful in providing an estimation of particle confinement time, a basic property of confined plasmas.;Finally, rigid rotor ion rotation, as has been measured by both an ICCD spectrometer system, and the visible light tomography, is applied to measurements of a radial electric field. It is found that two scenarios could explain the measured electric field. The first is that a rigid ion rotation that is 2.3 times faster than the measured ion rotation frequency can explain the measured Er profile if we assume there is no ion temperature gradient. The second is that by assuming an ion temperature gradient with colder ions toward the center, the measured ion rotation frequency can be brought into close agreement with the measured Er profile. |
