Physics Studies for Assessment of Requirement of Displacement Compensation System for ITER ECE Diagnostic

¹ ITER-India, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar 382428, India
² Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), Mumbai 400094, India
³ Institute for Fusion Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78750, USA

^* Corresponding author: suman.danani@iterindia.in

Published online: 23 February 2023

Abstract

The Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) diagnostic has the key function of measuring the core electron temperature profile and electron temperature fluctuation, from the intensity of electron cyclotron radiation emitted from the plasma along the major radius. The ECE diagnostic consists of three main systems: (1) front-end optics, which collects the radiation from the plasma, (2) transmission lines including polarizer splitter unit, which transports the ordinary and extraordinary ECE emission modes separately from the front-end and distributes it to the instrumentation, and (3) detection and analysis instrumentation which is housed at a distance from the tokamak, in the diagnostics building [1]. With its high electron temperatures and harsh environment, ITER presents various challenges for the diagnostic system. One of the most insidious is the misalignment between the in-vessel front-end optics and the ex-vessel transmission line which is caused by vibration of the vacuum vessel during operational and baking phases. Since the electron temperature is inferred from the intensity of the ECE, transient misalignment may lead to poor accuracy in this critical measurement. These displacements are expected to be ~ 15 mm in vertical (z) and horizontal (x) directions, and ~ 5 mm in the toroidal (y) direction. It is important to minimize the effect of these displacements, so that the system maintains alignment during operation, and reliable temperature information is attained. Our objective is to first study the coupling losses due to imperfect coupling of Gaussian beams owing to port plug displacements. Measurements are done to determine the power loss due to coupling of offset beams experimentally. The measured value for coupling loss is ~2 dB at 120 GHz, which is quite high, and it is therefore concluded that a mechanism is needed to compensate for the displacements.