Far-infrared laser scattering in the ACT-I toroidal device

A far-infrared laser scattering diagnostic has been built for the ACT-I toroidal device. The optical system uses a passively stabilized 447-μm CH3I laser. A polyethylene etalon is the beam splitter. The vacuum windows are plastic (TPX), which we found has the vacuum property Q 6.5 x 10-9 torr-liter/sec/cm2. Using paraboloidal and ellipsoidal mirrors for detection optics improves the signal strength and allows a better rf enclosure design for the detector. The diagnostic was tested by scattering from an ion Bernstein wave, a technique which can be used for ion temperature diagnostics