Reciprocating Langmuir Probes Set Design for the Mexican Tokamak "T"

Full text: A set of three reciprocating Langmuir probes has been designed to be part of the plasma diagnostics system in the tokamak "T", which will be based in Monterrey, Mexico. Due to the relatively short discharge times in a tokamak and to the widely well understood concept and accepted technology, a fast reciprocating probe system has been proposed to start studying the plasma properties in the scrape-off layer during the first season of campaigns in the Tokamak "T". Two configurations for the heads have been proposed. In the first configuration three Langmuir probes will be installed in the head of the reciprocating manipulators, while in a second configuration the head contains a ball-pen probe combined with a conventional triple Langmuir probe arrangement. While the triple probe concept has been extensively used and it is nowadays a current basic technology for different studies, the ball-pen probe concept is relatively new and it seems, even though it rises discussions, to deliver a fast and reliable measurement of the plasma potential. A test phase in a linear plasma device has been proposed due to the gap between the Tokamak "T" commissioning and the reciprocating probes commissioning. A single reciprocating manipulator will be built and tested together with the second head configuration mentioned before in order to ensure all design characteristics. Layouts and detailed arrangements are provided within this document for both the Tokamak stage and for the linear plasma device testing stage. (author)