HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION THOMSON SCATTERING SYSTEM FOR PLASMA DENSITY MEASUREMENTS

IN THE ANALYSIS OF PLASMA PHENOMENA, DETAILED KNOWLEDGE OF THE PARAMETERS INCLUDING LOCAL ELECTRON DENSITIES PROVIDES THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE BEHAVIOR AND INFLUENCE OF PLASMAS IN EXPERIMENTS. ONE TECHNIQUE TO GAIN THIS INFORMATION WHICH HAS ACHIEVED CENTRAL IMPORTANCE IS LASER THOMSON SCATTERING. THE MAIN ADVANTAGES OF THIS METHOD ARE THAT IT IS NON-INVASIVE, ACCURATE AND CAN ACHIEVE SPATIAL PRECISION. HOWEVER, IN MOST INSTANCES THIS SPATIAL INFORMATION MUST BE OBTAINED ON A SHOT BY SHOT BASIS THEREBY ELIMINATING THE USE OF THE DIAGNOSTIC FOR TRANSIENT PROFILE MEASUREMENTS. WE PROPOSE TO DESIGN A COMPACT THOMSON SYSTEM TO MEASURE SPATIAL PROFILES OF THE ELECTRON DENSITY WITH HIGH RESOLUTION BASED ON THE USE OF A MULTI-ELEMENT DETECTION SYSTEM AND RAPID DATA PROCESSING. BY EXTENDING THE THOMSON TECHNIQUE TO THIS SPECIFIC APPLICATION, MORE REFINED KNOWLEDGE OF THE PLASMAS IN ARC HEATERS AND NEAR HYPERVELOCITY OBJECTS RESULTS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I PROGRAM IS TO DESIGN THE OPTIMUM OPTICAL CONFIGURATION AND RESULTING PROTOTYPE SYSTEM.