Acousto-optic spectrum analyzer for plasma diagnostics

An acousto-optic rf spectrometer (AOS) has been designed and constructed for use on the CONSTANCE B and TARA mirror experiments at MIT. The AOS is an analog preprocessor of data that can come from a variety of sources, including rf probes and microwave/laser scattering experiments. The output of the AOS is the Fourier transform amplitude of the input in a parallel format suitable for computer acquisition. The spectrometer, having a bandwidth of 500 MHz and a resolution of 1 MHz, together with its receiver, is capable of looking at fluctuations anywhere in the frequency range of a few MHz up to 4 GHz. Power levels of a few nanowatts can be detected. Complete 500-MHz-wide spectra can be processed and acquired at the rate of 1 every 10 μs. The optical components, receiver, and data-acquisition interface will be discussed, and initial data taken on the CONSTANCE B experiment will be shown