ISSN:
1089-7550
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
A technique to measure the ion temperature in a thermonuclear plasma is proposed, based on Rutherford scattering of a beam of energetic neutral particles by the plasma ions. If the mass of the beam particles, mb, is larger than the mass of the scattering ions, mp, a sharp maximum (limiting) angle θlim=sin−1(mp/mb) exists in case the thermal velocities of the plasma ions are neglected. When the scattering ions have thermal velocities, however, scattering of beam particles can occur through angles larger than θlim. Measurement of the intensity of particles above the limiting angle can be used to find the temperature of the plasma ions, with a 10% accuracy and a spatial and temporal resolution of 10 cm and a few μs, respectively, provided the ion velocity distribution is Maxwellian. A feasibility study elucidates that this method can also be used to measure the temperature of a 3He minority component.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.343128
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