DOUBLE code simulations of emissivities of fast neutrals for different plasma observation view-lines of neutral particle analyzers on the COMPASS tokamak
Abstract
Neutral particle analyzers (NPA) measure line-integrated energy spectra of fast neutral atoms escaping the tokamak plasma, which are a product of charge-exchange (CX) collisions of plasma ions with background neutrals. They can observe variations in the ion temperature T-i of non-thermal fast ions created by additional plasma heating.
However, the plasma column which a fast atom has to pass through must be sufficiently short in comparison with the fast atom's mean-free-path. Tokamak COMPASS is currently equipped with one NPA installed at a tangential mid-plane port.
This orientation is optimCal for observing non-thermal fast ions. However, in this configuration the signal at energies useful for T-i derivation is lost in noise due to the too long fast atoms' trajectories.
Thus, a second NPA is planned to be connected for the purpose of measuring T-i. We analyzed different possible view-lines (perpendicular mid-plane, tangential mid-plane, and top view) for the second NPA using the DOUBLE Monte-Carlo code and compared the results with the performance of the present NPA with tangential orientation.
The DOUBLE code provides fast-atoms' emissivity functions along the NPA view-line. The position of the median of these emissivity functions is related to the location from where the measured signal originates.
Further, we compared the difference between the real central T-i used as a DOUBLE code input and the T-iCX derived from the exponential decay of simulated energy spectra. The advantages and disadvantages of each NPA location are discussed.