FIR interferometer and scattering measurements on ATF

A 15-channel far-infrared (FIR) interferometer system has been constructed to measure the electron densities on the ATF plasmas. The system consists of a pair of cw 214-μm difluoromethane (CH2F2) lasers, optically pumped by separate CO2 lasers. The large number of channels is achieved by the use of reflective beam expansion optics to create a beam of 2 cm x 45 cm. After passing through the plasma discharge, the elongated beam produced by the cylindrical mirrors is dissected by an array of 15 off-axis paraboloid reflectors, each of which illuminates a single Schottky-diode detector. The use of the beam expanding optics system reduces the number of optical elements required for the interferometer to approximately 2-3 per channel. The FIR laser beams are transported from the laser room to the experimental area by 25 mm i.d. dielectric waveguides purged with dry nitrogen. The system can also be operated at a wavelength of 119-μm by changing the gas in FIR laser cavities to methanol for high density experiments. Details of the system are described. A study is underway to determine the optimum design of a FIR scattering system for the ATF. This scattering system will be used to investigate density fluctuations with scale lengths from 0.1 cm to the plasma radius. The laser for this scattering system may be operated at wavelengths of 447, 307, 214, 184, and 119 μm with power levels of 100 to 500 mW. A summary of the study is presented. (author). 6 refs, 1 fig