Commissioning of the KATRIN Raman system for monitoring of the WGTS gas composition

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) Experiment aims at determining the neutrino mass by the investigation of the endpoint energy-region of the tritium β-spectrum. Tritium in its molecular form (³H₂) is injected into the Windowless Gaseous Tritium Source (WGTS) of KATRIN, and thus molecular effects, e.g. ro-vibrational excitations levels, have to be considered in the neutrino mass analysis in order to reach the design sensitivity of 200 meV/c² (90% C.L.). As the source gas also contains impurities of the other hydrogen isotopes protium and deuterium - giving rise to different molecular excitation levels - continuous and precise monitoring of the source gas composition is required. Raman spectroscopy is the method of choice for this task as it is an inline and non-contact analysis method. In this talk, results from the recently performed commissioning phase of the KATRIN Raman system are presented: over the course of more than 50 days, consecutive Raman spectra (recorded with acquisition times of 60 s) of circulating tritium gas were acquired and analysed in real-time. In addition, valuable information on the system performance during long-term operation was gained.