Thomson scattering calibration with ultra-bright supercontinuum light source

The recently developed supercontinuum light source (SLS) finds a useful application in the calibration of a Thomson scattering (TS) diagnostic. When filter polychromators are used, the relative responsivity of the spectral channels is generally measured with a cw halogen light source from the dc output of the detectors, while the TS signal is measured from an ac output. In a TS system with optical delay lines, like in RFX-mod, a cw light source cannot discriminate differences between the relative responsivities of the positions that share the same polychromator but are connected to different delay lines: this can be achieved with a pulsed white light source instead. In addition a pulsed source with a time response similar to the TS signals would avoid any frequency response problem, because the same ac output of the detectors used for the TS signals could also be used for the calibration. An SLS produces a 5 ns Gaussian pulse, with a wide and smooth spectrum that covers the range of 550-1600 nm. The SLS provides a light source sufficiently bright to calibrate simultaneously all spectrometers. The experimental setup used for the calibration and obtained results are presented. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.