Progress and challenges in the design of ITER’s polarimetric Thomson scattering diagnostic system

What is it about?

This paper is an overview of the most recent progresses in the design of a Polarimetric Thomson Scattering diagnostic, a system that aims at measuring electron temperature in particularly challenging plasma scenarios, such as the high-power plasmas that will be developed in the ITER tokamak.

Featured Image

Photo by Amos from Stockphotos.com on Unsplash

Photo by Amos from Stockphotos.com on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The fusion plasma in the ITER tokamak will reach extremely high temperatures, never seen before in a fusion reactor. Probing plasma temperature in these scenarios is particularly challenging with systems that rely on spectral analysis. This new device would employ a recently proposed technique that measures the degree of depolarisation of scattered light instead of its spectrum. Within this method, the signal quality improves with plasma temperature, allowing for reliable measurements even in high-power scenarios.