Greifswald 2024 – scientific programme

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SYEC: Symposium Lasers and Photonic Technologies for Environmental Challenges

SYEC 4: Photonics-Assisted Green Energy Production II

SYEC 4.1: Talk

Tuesday, February 27, 2024, 16:30–16:45, ELP 6: HS 4

Laser-based diagnostics in nuclear fusion research at Wendelstein 7-X — •Jannik Wagner¹, Golo Fuchert¹, Ekkehard Pasch¹, Jens Knauer¹, Kai Jakob Brunner¹, Marcus Beurskens¹, Sergey A. Bozhenkov¹, Matthias Hirsch¹, Petra Kornejew¹, Maciej Krychowiak¹, Miklos Porkolab², Adrian v. Stechow¹, Thomas Wegner¹, Robert C. Wolf¹, and W7-X Team¹ — ¹Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Greifswald, Germany — ²Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Thermonuclear fusion offers the potential of unlimited, carbon-free and safe energy production with little or no long living radioactive waste, compared to nuclear fission. At Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), one of the world's largest fusion experiments, several laser-based diagnostic methods are employed. Using various wavelengths, they obtain information on plasma parameters, which are important to determine the performance of the W7-X plasma. These diagnostics evaluate for example the light scattered by plasma electrons (Thomson scattering), phase shifts of the laser beam due to plasma density fluctuations (phase contrast imaging), changes in the refractive index (interferometry) or the light emitted by laser-induced electronic transitions in spectroscopic measurements. Lasers are also used for targeted material injection into the plasma edge in order to investigate the transport of impurities (laser blow-off).

In this talk, we will give a short introduction to nuclear fusion and an overview of the laser-based diagnostics at W7-X as an example of diagnostics commonly used in fusion research.

Keywords: Laser; Plasma diagnostics; Photonic technologies; Plasma physics; Nuclear fusion