A possibility of local measurements of ion temperature in a high-temperature plasma by laser induced ionization

A new diagnostic for local measurements of ion temperature and drift velocity in fusion plasmas is proposed in the paper. The diagnostic is based on laser induced ionization of excited hydrogen and deuterium atoms from the levels which ionization energy less than the laser photon energy. A high intensive laser beam ionizes nearly all the excited atoms in the beam region resulting in a quench of spontaneous line emission of the appropriate optical transitions. The measurements of the quenching emission have been used in the past for local measurements of hydrogen atom density in tokamak plasma. The idea of the new diagnostic is spectral resolution of the quenching emission. The measured spectrum relates directly to the velocity distribution of the excited atoms. This distribution is strongly coupled to the distribution of the hydrogen atoms at the ground state. So, the spectral resolution of quenching emission is a way of local measurements of the temperature and drift velocity of hydrogen atoms in plasma. The temperature of hydrogen atoms is well coupled to the local ion temperature as long as the mean free path of the atoms is shorter than the ion gradient length in plasma. In this case the new diagnostic can provide local measurements of ion temperature in plasma. The paper considers technical capabilities of the diagnostic, physical restrictions of its application and interpretation of the measurements.