Far forward scattering on TOSCA tokamak using a detector array

A gaussian beam from a CW CO2, laser is directed across the vertical minor diameter of TOSCA tokamak where it undergoes collective scattering at angles within the beam divergence. Scattered radiation recombines with the unperturbed part of the beam on the detector, generating intensity oscillations whose spatial, temporal, and phase distributions convey information about the strength, scale length, frequency, and propagation direction of the plasma density fluctuations in which they originate. The distribution of these oscillations is measured across the diameter of the probe beam profile, either with a single photoconductive Ge:Hg detector over a sequence of plasma discharges, or with a 12-channel array of Ge:Hg detectors during a single discharge. A model describing counter-rotating waves, such as a poloidal structure encountered twice by the probe beam as it traverses the plasma, is able to furnish a satisfactory fit to the data. Use of the array provides a phase distribution from which the sense of rotation of the waves can be deduced. A dispersion relation with frequencies up to 250 kHz, wavenumbers in the range 60-300 m-1, and a phase velocity of ≅ 6x103 ms-1 is found