Soft X-Ray Diagnostic Tool for Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources

65570 Improved measurements of impurity concentrations in the plasma core of fusion reactors would provide a better understanding of particle dynamics, thermal transport, and radiative dissipation, and thus accelerate the achievement of fusion energy. Detection systems employing Ross filters can isolate X-ray emission lines of specific elements and provide high spatial and temporal spectral resolutions. Therefore, this project will design, fabricate, and test a Ross filter pair and associated numerical analysis programs to analyze the dynamics of various atomic species. The technology will be installed on an X-ray imaging system at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. Phase I will use existing Ross filter data for the Ar lines at DIII-D to obtain relevant physical quantities such as impurity concentration evolution. Then, a Ross filter pair will be designed with improved balance, and optimized for argon lines for spectral measurements from the DIII-D plasmas. A conceptual design will be developed for an integrated system comprised of Ross filters, the associated numerical analysis tools, and the DIII-D X-ray imaging system. Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by the awardee : The Ross filter system should find use as a routine diagnostic tool with X-ray imaging systems on magnetic confinement fusion plasma devices (tokamaks, reversed field pinches, and stellarators), inertial confinement fusion plasma, and high intensity pulsed power X-ray sources, such as the Z-pinch plasma. The filters should also find use in medical imaging and on space vehicles or satellites for the measurement of astrophysical X-ray emission sources.