Grazing incidence EUV study of the Alcator tokamaks

The use of impurity radiation to examine plasma conditions is a well known technique. To gain access, however, to the hot, central portion of the plasma created in the present confinement machines it is necessary to be able to observe radiation from medium and heavy elements such as molybdenum and iron. These impurities radiate primarily in the extreme ultra violet region of the spectrum and can play a role in the power balance of the tokamak. Radiation from highly ionized molybdenum was examined on the Alcator A and C tokamaks using a photometrically calibrated one meter grazing incidence monochromator. On Alcator A, a pseudo-continuum of Mo emissions in the 60 to 100 A ranges were seen to comprise 17% of the radiative losses from the plasma. This value closely matched measurements by a broad band bolometer array. Following these preliminary measurements, the monochromator was transferred to Alcator C for a more thorough examination of EUV emissions. Deviations from predicted scaling laws for energy confinement time vs density were observed on this machine