System for control of cooled CCD and image data processing for plasma spectroscopy

A Spectroscopic measurement system which has a spacial resolution is important for plasma study. This is especially true for a measurement of a plasma without axial symmetry like the LHD-plasma. Several years ago, we developed an imaging spectroscopy system using a CCD camera and an image-memory board of a personal computer. It was very powerful to study a plasma-gas interaction phenomena. In which system, however, an ordinary CCD was used so that the dark-current noise of the CCD prevented to measure dark spectral lines. Recently, a cooled CCD system can be obtained for the high sensitivity measurement. But such system is still very expensive. The cooled CCD itself as an element can be purchased cheaply, because amateur agronomists began to use it to take a picture of heavenly bodies. So we developed an imaging spectroscopy system using such a cheap cooled CCD for plasma experiment