Test of a High Throughput Detector on the X-ray Crystal Spectrometer of the EAST

An attempt was made to improve the spatio-temporal resolution of the tangential X-ray crystal spectrometer (XCS) on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) by evaluating experimentally the applicability of a novel X-ray photon detection technology for measuring the satellite spectra of Ar XVII with a high counting rate. High-resolution experimental data on the profiles of ion temperature and plasma rotation velocity facilitate the studies of the mechanisms underlining important physical phenomena, such as plasma heating, L-H transition and momentum transport. Based on silicon diode array and single-photon counting technology, a relatively small area (83.8×33.5 mm2) two-dimensional detector was successfully installed and tested in the recent EAST campaign. X-ray photon counting rate higher than 20 MHz was observed for the first time, and high quality satellite spectra were recorded for ion temperature and plasma rotation measurement, indicating that the new technology is suitable for the next-step high-resolution XCS on EAST, and the deployment of a detector array with a much larger X-ray sensing area is planned for better plasma coverage. (magnetically confined plasma)