A flexible luminescent probe to monitor fast ion losses at the edge of the TJ-II stellarator

A mobile luminescent probe has been developed to detect fast ion losses and suprathermal ions escaping from the plasma of the TJ-II stellarator device. The priorities for its design have been flexibility for probe positioning, ease of maintenance, and detector sensitivity. It employs a coherent fiber bundle to relay, to the outside of the vacuum chamber, ionoluminescence images produced by the ions that impinge, after entering the detector head through a pinhole aperture, onto a screen of luminescent material. Ionoluminescence light detection is accomplished by a charge-coupled device camera and by a photomultiplier, both of which are optically coupled to the in-vacuum fiber bundle head by means of a standard optical setup. A detailed description of the detector, and the first results obtained when operated close to the plasma edge, are reported. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.2979013]