Ultrashort pulse reflectometry for electron density profile measurements on SSPX

A broadband ultrashort pulse reflectometry (USPR) diagnostic has been developed for measuring electron density profiles of the sustained spheromak physics experiment (SSPX) device. In USPR, an extremely short pulse or chirped wave form is propagated which contains a broad range of frequency components spanning the desired plasma density profile (or a significant fraction thereof). Upon reflection, each frequency component in the incident waveform reflects from a different spatial location (density layer) in the plasma, thus spreading out the reflected wave packet in time. By simultaneously collecting double-pass time delay data at many distinct frequencies, the time delay data may then be inverted to generate plasma density profiles using a single source and a single set of measurements. On SSPX, wideband mixers are utilized to up- and downconvert 6-18 GHz chirp signals to millimeter-wave frequencies (33-158 GHz) to form a 48 channel O-mode reflectometer system. In this article we describe details of the new USPR system installed on the SSPX device and provide preliminary time-of-flight results. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.