Optimalization study for ion-temperature measurements by means of Rutherford scattering

Small-angle Rutherford scattering of energetic neutrals by plasma ions is governed by energy and momentum conservation. The FWHM of the scattering distibution reveals the ion temperature of the plasma. A feasibility study is performed to optimize the parameters in case Rutherford-scattering technique is applied to a medium-sized tokamak experiment. Together with a time-of-flight analyser with a high energy resolution of about 100, a 20 keV helium probing beam with a neutral current density of 10 A/m2 can provide a detailed spectrum within 3 ms, from which the ion temperature can be extracted with an accuracy of better than 10%. The influence of plasma impurities and resonant charge exchange on the scattering process is discussed in detail. The good spatial resolution makes the method very suitable to investigate energy deposition profiles in the case of ion-cyclotron radiation applied to the plasma for the purpose of plasma heating. (orig.)