Design of laser-aided diagnostics for the negative hydrogen ion source SPIDER

ITER nuclear fusion experiment requires additional heating via neutral beams by means of two injectors, delivering 16.5 MW each, up to one hour. This power level results from the neutralization of negative deuterium ions generated by an RF source and accelerated to 1 MeV. Such specifications have never been simultaneously achieved so far and therefore a test facility is being constructed at Consorzio RFX, to demonstrate the feasibility of a prototype neutral beam injector. The facility will host two experimental devices: SPIDER, a 100 kV negative hydrogen/deuterium RF source, full size prototype of the ITER source, and MITICA, a prototype of the full ITER injector. SPIDER will be devoted to optimize the extracted negative ion current density and its spatial uniformity and to minimize the co-extracted electron current. Negative hydrogen is mainly produced by conversion of hydrogen particles at the cesium coated surface of the plasma grid. The interplay of these two species is fundamental to understand and optimize the source performance. Two laser-aided diagnostics play an important role in measuring the negative hydrogen and cesium density: cavity ring down spectroscopy and laser absorption spectroscopy. Cavity ring down spectroscopy will use the photo-detachment process to measure the absolute line-of-sight integrated negative ion density in the extraction region of the source. Laser absorption spectroscopy will be employed to measure the line integrated neutral cesium density, allowing to study the cesium distribution in the source volume, during both the plasma and the vacuum phases. In this paper, the design of the laser-aided diagnostic systems on SPIDER is presented, supported by a review of results obtained in other operating experiments.