Imaging x-ray crystal spectrometers for the National Spherical Torus Experiment

A new type of high-resolution x-ray imaging crystal spectrometers is described for implementation on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) to provide spatially and temporally resolved data on the ion temperature, toroidal and poloidal plasma rotation, electron temperature, impurity ion-charge state distributions, and impurity transport. These data are derived from observations of the satellite spectra of heliumlike argon, Ar XVII, which is the dominant charge state for electron temperatures in the range from 0.4 to 3.0 keV and which is accessible to NSTX. Experiments at the Torus Experiment for Technology Oriented Research (TEXTOR) demonstrate that a throughput of 2 x 10(5) photons/s (corresponding to the count-rate limit of the present detectors) can easily be obtained with small, nonperturbing argon gas puffs of less than 1 x 10(-3) Torr rho/s, so that it is possible to record spectra with a small statistical error and a good time resolution (typically 50 and 1 ms in some cases). Employing a novel design, which is based on the imaging properties of spherically bent crystals, the spectrometers will provide spectrally and spatially resolved images of the plasma for all experimental conditions, which include ohmically heated discharges as well as plasmas with rf and neutral-beam heating. The conceptual design, experimental results on the focusing properties, and relevant spectral data from TEXTOR are presented. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)60301- X].