Pulse-heated vertical electron cyclotron emission diagnostic

Determination of plasma parameters in tokamak experiments is of primary importance for learning to control and optimize fusion plasmas. Electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics play an important role in these experiments and are planned for future test reactors, since they require only simple collecting optics in the harsh reactor environment. A novel diagnostic system, which extracts information about plasma parameters by examining the ECE resulting from a perturbation of the plasma, was examined and applied on the PBX-M tokamak.; This diagnostic uses a brief pulse of power from the lower hybrid current drive system to create a population of superthermal electrons. These electrons evolve according to the Fokker-Planck equation, which involves dependences on the magnetic field pitch, ion charge state, background density, and electric field. Coincident with the evolution of the electrons is the evolution of their ECE radiation. The diagnostic exploits the fact that the temporal changes in the radiation are dependent upon those parameters which affect the electrons.; The analysis method, which compares measured experimental signal with simulated radiation (as functions of frequency and time) and determines most probable plasma parameter values, was computationally tested for effectiveness and robustness. The method was extended to include determination of parameters of the lower hybrid current drive power deposition.; A measurement system, based on a grating polychromator, was assembled, tested, and calibrated, and pulse-heated vertical ECE data were collected from the PBX-M tokamak. A proof-of-principle test of the diagnostic yielded positive results, resulting in information about the lower hybrid current drive deposition location.