Three view electronically scanned interferometer for plasma electron density measurements on the H-1 heliac

We report the development of a three view electronically scanned millimeter-wave interferometer for plasma electron density profile measurement on the H-1 heliac. The system utilizes an electronically tunable backward-wave oscillator whose output is incident on a fixed blazed diffraction grating such that sweeping the source frequency effects a spatial scan of the plasma cross section. Two diagonal views essentially span most of the plasma cross section, while the horizontal arm views the lower half of the plasma. The diffracted beams traverse the plasma in 1 ms with a spatial resolution 20 mm. A study of the density projection dependence on magnetic configuration shows that the presence of low-order rational surfaces in the plasma gives rise to sharp density gradients in the vicinity of the surface. © 2006 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2218839