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Sanchez, Cuauhtemoc Rodriguez

Publications and source records attributed to Sanchez, Cuauhtemoc Rodriguez.

A magnetic diagnostic suite for the Pegasus-III experiment

Pegasus-III is an ultralow aspect ratio spherical tokamak providing a dedicated US experiment for comparative solenoid-free startup studies. A new magnetic diagnostic suite for equilibrium and low frequency (<200 kHz) magnetohydrodynamic mode analysis has been installed. These new diagnostics address the significant challenges of measuring magnetic field in a high noise environment with the majority constrained to fit in an 8 mm diagnostic gap on the high field side. Electrostatic switching noise generated by the 16 independent current feedback-controlled power supplies produces dV cm /dt ~ 1 kV/μs and volt level common mode noise on the magnetics. Immunity to this switching noise is accomplished through differential signal runs and signal processing, along with end-to-end electromagnetic interference shielding. The magnetic measurements are simultaneously digitized at 1 MHz and conditioned by precision 8 pole Butterworth filters with a corner frequency of 200 kHz to prevent aliasing down to the 16-bit level over the full passband. Ex-vessel calibrations of the B p coils were completed with a typical uncertainty of <0.5%. Stray toroidal field pickup from coil misalignment or positioning errors is corrected using a physics-based model. Comparisons of the corrected measurements to modeling agree to within 1.3% on average. This is within the 1.5% measurement uncertainty that a sensitivity analysis determined is needed for accurate fast boundary and equilibrium reconstruction.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Implementation of an impurity diagnostic suite on the Pegasus-III experiment

A suite of diagnostics used to assess impurity content and dynamics has been updated, upgraded, and installed on the Pegasus-III Experiment. Typical plasma parameters during local helicity injection start-up are τ shot ~10 ms, n e ~ 1 × 10 19 m –3 , and T e ~ 50 eV. The deployed diagnostics are compatible with this modest temperature and density regime and provide species identification, source localization, and estimation of radiation losses. Impurity species are determined by recording time-evolving, single line-of-sight spectra at 1.25 kfps using a SPRED (Survey, Poor Resolution, Extended Domain) vacuum ultraviolet spectrometer. SPRED is equipped with 450 g/mm grating, giving a spectral resolution of 0.33 nm and a spectral range from ~10 to 110 nm, useful to identify light impurity species in this temperature and density range. An absolutely calibrated spectrometer that collects light from the plasma at R tan = 15.9 cm and Δt ≥ 2 ms is used as a visible survey spectrometer and for continuum measurements. The radiated power from the plasma is estimated with a photodiode-based diagnostic. Two 16-channel absolute extreme ultraviolet diode arrays are placed behind pinhole apertures, resulting in 32 lines of sight at Z = 0, with a spatial resolution of 2–3 cm and a time response of 60 kHz. A photometrically calibrated collinear D α /near infrared filtered photodiode-based system measures the D α emission and around 1040 nm. All these instruments have been designed to suppress electromagnetic interference from megawatt-class switching power supplies.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗