[Table of Contents]

Plasma and Fusion Research

Volume 5, S2061 (2010)

Regular Articles

Density Regimes of Low-Aspect-Ratio RFP Plasmas in RELAX
Masaki SUGIHARA, Kensuke OKI, Ryuya IKEZOE, Takumi ONCHI, Akio SANPEI, Haruhiko HIMURA, Sadao MASAMUNE, Tsuyoshi AKIYAMA1), Akira EJIRI2), Keishi SAKAMOTO3), Kazunobu NAGASAKI4) and Vladimir ZHURAVLEV5)
Kyoto Institute of Technology, Matsugaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan
1)
National Institute for Fusion Science, 322-6 Oroshi-cho, Toki 509-5292, Japan
2)
The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa 277-8561, Japan
3)
Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 801-1, Mukoyama, Naka 311-0193, Japan
4)
Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji 611-0011, Japan
5)
Kurchatov Institute, Kurchatov-Sq., Moscow 123182, Russia
(Received 18 December 2009 / Accepted 19 May 2010 / Published 10 December 2010)

Abstract

The line-averaged electron density has been measured over a wide range of discharge conditions in a low-aspect-ratio reversed field pinch (RFP) machine RELAX. A 104 GHz heterodyne interferometer was mainly used throughout the experiments. The measured electron density ne varied from ∼0.3 × 1019 m−3 to ∼3 × 1019 m−3, depending upon the discharge conditions. A new 60 GHz homodyne interferometer, characterized by simplicity and low cost, has been developed for the density measurement particularly in low density regime. The results from the new homodyne interferometer have shown good agreement with those from the heterodyne system in low-density regime of ne up to ∼1019 m−3.

Keywords

reversed field pinch, RELAX, millimeter-wave interferometer, electron density measurement

DOI: 10.1585/pfr.5.S2061

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This paper may be cited as follows:

Masaki SUGIHARA, Kensuke OKI, Ryuya IKEZOE, Takumi ONCHI, Akio SANPEI, Haruhiko HIMURA, Sadao MASAMUNE, Tsuyoshi AKIYAMA, Akira EJIRI, Keishi SAKAMOTO, Kazunobu NAGASAKI and Vladimir ZHURAVLEV, Plasma Fusion Res. 5, S2061 (2010).